Scores dead in IS attacks on Syrian government's coastal stronghold
#SyriaWar
Toll of over 100 could rise as hospitals call for blood donors following 'unprecedented' multiple bombings in Tartus and Jableh
Blasts in Tartus, the site of Russia's naval base, killed 48 people (AFP)
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MEE and agencies
Monday 23 May 2016 08:47 UTC
Last update:
Monday 23 May 2016 13:02 UTC
At least 101 people were killed and 120 wounded in bombings in Syrian government strongholds Tartus and Jableh on Monday, the Syrian state news agency said.
A count by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll as high as 121, although those figures have yet to be verified.
The monitor's head, Rami Abdel Rahman, called the blasts "unprecedented" in cities like Tartus and Jabel, which have not seen large attacks since the 1980s.
There were also reports of a retaliatory arson attack on a camp for internally displaced people in Tartus in the aftermath of the string of bombings.
On Monday morning, in the small coastal town of Jableh, some 30km south of Latakia, state media said 53 people died in four explosions, three of them suicide blasts.
Two of the blasts in Jableh reportedly hit the emergency department of a local hospital, which was targeted by suicide blasts.
One of the bombers arrived at the hospital apprearing to be helping people injured in an explosion that hit minutes earlier, before blowing himself up just inside the entrance, local news site Tartous Today reported.
The hospital's emergency department was completely destroyed by the bomb, the site reported.
Another attack hit the city's electric power plant, killing ten people.
Footage circulated on social media appeared to show members of the security forces detaining a man suspected to be a failed suicide bomber after the string of attacks in Jableh.
In the city of Tartus further south, 48 people were killed in three blasts - at least two of them suicide attacks - that hit a bus station, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Local hospitals in Tartus - which is also the site of a Russian naval base - put out an urgent call for blood donations after the blasts, warning that many of those injured are in a critical condition.
There were reports that a fire at al-Kernak camp in the small town of Amrit, just outside Tartus, was started deliberately in retaliation for the deadly bombings.
The camp mainly houses internally displaced people who belong to the country's Sunni Muslim majority.
The news site Tartous Today put out an editorial statement following the fire, saying that "IDPs are your brothers, and an injury to you is an injury to them.
"If they were sectarian they would not have fled here [to a Shia-dominated area], and if you were sectarian you would not have hosted them."
All seven explosions of Monday morning's explosions went off nearly simultaneously.
Islamic State (IS) has claimed the blasts through its media arm Amaq, saying IS fighters had targeted "gatherings of Alawites," the religious sect from which President Bashar al-Assad hails.
Russian news sites had earlier reported that Ahrar al-Sham claimed to have carried out the attacks.
The Syrian government has condemned the attacks, saying in a statement that the bombings - which the statement said were launched with support from countries like Qatar, were a response to recent battlefield advances by the Syrian army.
Such large-scale co-ordinated attacks rarely hit cities in Latakia province, which is known as a stronghold of support for Assad and is home to a high concentration of Syria's Alawite minority.
Towns like Tartus have been largely insulated from the chaos that has devastated Syria over the past five years, although large numbers of young men from Tartus have been killed fighting for Assad's forces.
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