Bomb attacks in two Syrian cities left at least 100 people dead and many others wounded Monday.
Syrian state television and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on the attacks.
Four bombs exploded in Jableh, a city on the Mediterranean Sea. At least one of the bombings was a suicide attack.
Syria’s state news agency said three rockets were fired into the city. It said the rockets hit a bus station near the entrance to the town. At least 53 people were killed in that attack, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syrian military forces are in control of Jableh.
Three more bombs – at least one of which was a suicide attack - exploded in Tartus, a city 60 kilometers south of Jableh on the Mediterranean coast.
The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights called the bombings in Tartus an “unprecedented” attack.
Syria's state news agency reported that attackers targeted a bus station in Tartus. Syrian state television said at least one suicide attacker set off explosives near the bus station. Minutes later, a car bomb exploded at the station. Another 48 people died in that attack.
A news agency linked to the Islamic State said the militant group was responsible.
The Amaq news agency reported on social media that "attacks by Islamic State fighters hit Alawite gatherings in Tartus and Jableh on the Syria coast."
The militants and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad follow competing forms of Islam. Assad and his family are Alawites.
Words in This Story
kilometer – n. a measurement of length equal to 1,000 meters
unprecedented – adj. never done or known before