Bomb blasts killed more than 100 people in the Syrian coastal cities of Jableh and Tartous on May 23, monitors said, in a government-controlled area that host Russian forces. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks in the Mediterranean cites that have up to now escaped the worst of the conflict, saying it was targeting supporters of President Bashar al-Assad.
Reuters: Blasts kill more than 100 in Syrian government coastal heartland
A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on May 23, 2016, shows a firefighter extinguishing a blaze at the scene of multiple bombings in the the city of Tartus northwest of Damascus. At least 101 people were killed in a spate of bombings in two regime bastions along Syria's coast, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A total of seven blasts simultaneously, four in Jableh and three in Tartus, hit the two cities on May 23 morning.
