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| Soldiers and civilians inspect the site of a bombing in Tartus. Photograph: Sana/EPA |
Dozens of people have been killed in an apparently
coordinated string of bombings across government-held cities in Syria, as
battles that have drawn in regional and international powers rage throughout an
embattled country carved into competing spheres of influence.
Syrian state media said at least 40 people had died in six
suicide bombings in the city of Homs in central Syria, the suburbs of Damascus,
the suburbs of the coastal city of Tartus, and the Kurdish-controlled Hasakah
city. Dozens more have been wounded.
Police in Tartus said a car bomb detonated on the main road
leading into the city, and a second suicide bomber killed several who had
gathered in the aftermath, killing 30 people and wounding 45. Two other
bombings near Damascus killed one person and injured three, while a car bomb in
Homs city killed four people and injured 10.
In Hasakah, which is controlled predominantly by Kurdish
paramilitaries known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), five people were
killed in the city centre after a motorbike laden with explosives was
detonated. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on its
news agency Amaq.
Tartus has remained loyal to the government of Bashar
al-Assad throughout five years of civil war and has been largely spared the
destruction wrought on other parts of the country, emerging as a relative haven
for refugees who wished to remain in Syria. The area is also home to Russian
naval and air force facilities, with Moscow directing its aerial campaign in
Syria from there.
In May, Tartus and neighbouring Jableh city was hit by a
string of suicide bombings orchestrated by Isis, in which 184 people
were killed and more than 200 wounded.
The latest bombings came amid multiple battlefield defeats
by Isis and other significant developments over the weekend that have added
another layer of complexity and suffering to a war that has claimed nearly half
a million lives and displaced half the population.
In Aleppo, which has been divided for four years into
interlaced zones of opposition and regime control, forces loyal to Assad
succeeded on Sunday in reimposing a siege on the rebel-held eastern districts,
only a month after it was lifted in
a rebel offensive.
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