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Syria conflict: Dozens killed in bombings on government-held areas | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
At least 40 people have been killed in four bombings in government-held areas of Syria and one in a city dominated by Kurdish forces, state media report. | |
The attacks took place between 08:00 and 09:00 (05:00-06:00 GMT) around Damascus, Homs, Tartous and Hassakeh. It was not clear if they were linked. | |
The deadliest incident was outside Tartous, on the Mediterranean coast. | |
Tartous, which hosts a Russian naval base, is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect. | |
A news agency affiliated to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) said it was behind the Hassakeh attack, which allegedly targeted Kurdish militiamen. | |
'Crowd targeted' | |
Syria's official Sana news agency reported that 30 civilians were killed and 45 others injured in the Tartous countryside on Monday morning. | |
First, a car bomb was detonated on the Arzoneh motorway bridge, a local police source was cited as saying. Then, as a crowd gathered at the scene to help the wounded, a suicide bomber detonated his explosive belt, the source added. | |
Tartous had been relatively unscathed by Syria's five-year civil war until May, when a suicide bomb attack on a bus station by IS militants left almost dozens dead. | |
In the central city of Homs, four civilians were killed and 10 injured when a car bomb exploded at the entrance to the Bab Tadmour district, Sana reported. | |
The blast damaged a number of nearby homes and set cars alight, it added. | |
One person was meanwhile killed in a bombing on the Sabboura-Bajja road outside Damascus, a police source told Sana. | |
In Hassakeh, an explosives-packed motorcycle was blown up at a roundabout, killing five civilians and injuring two others, Sana said. | |
The Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia took near complete control of the north-eastern city last month after a week of clashes with government troops. | |
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group that monitors the conflict in Syria through a network of sources, put Monday's death toll at 47. |