Daesh claims responsibility for deadly bombings in Syrian coastal cities

Daesh terror group has claimed a spate of bombings in two Syrian regime stronghold cities, which the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said killed at least 100 people and wounded 120 on Monday.

The terrorist group's Amaq news agency said Daesh attackers had targeted "gatherings of Alawites in Tartous and Jableh", a reference to the minority sect to which Syria's Bashar al-Assad belongs.

"More than 48 people were killed in Tartous and 53 in Jabla, located in an area on the outskirts of the province of Latakia," the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The Tartous blasts came a few minutes after at least two explosions rocked Jabla, the Observatory said.

"The number of casualties is likely to increase as there are tens of wounded in both blasts," an activist in the province of Latakia, who goes by the name of Abu Mohammed, said.

The state-run Syrian News Agency (SANA) confirmed the blasts and said that the explosion in Tartous took place in a residential area.

According to SANA, first a car bomb went off in the area where a transportation station is located in Tartous; and then a few seconds later a suicide bomber blew himself up in the area, causing several casualties.

"A third blast was carried out simultaneously by a suicide bomber on the western side of the station, which was targeted by the first two blasts," SANA added.

The agency said that several blasts also rocked the area of Jabla. Syrian-State TV further reported that one of the Jabla blasts hit a hospital in the area.

Source : MENA