String of blasts kill 18 across Syria

Dozens have been wounded in bombings which occurred mostly in government-controlled areas of country

BEIRUT: At least 18 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings across mostly government-controlled areas of Syria on Monday, state media reported.

The blasts hit government-held Tartus and Homs, as well as Hasakeh, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces but where the regime maintains a presence. State media said at least 11 people had been killed and 45 injured in a double bomb attack just outside the city of Tartus, in the coastal province of the same name, which is a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad's government.

"Two terrorist blasts on Arzuna bridge, the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded," state television said. State media also reported five people killed in Hasakeh, in the northeast of the country.



The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the blast hit a checkpoint belonging to the Kurdish Asayesh security forces. And state media also reported a car bomb at the entrance to the Al-Zahra neighbourhood in central Homs city, which is controlled by the government.

It said at least two people were killed and four wounded in the bombing, which is the latest in a series of attacks targeting al Zahra neighbourhood, where most residents are Alawite, the sect to which Assad belongs.

State media also reported another bomb attack on a road west of the capital Damascus, but gave no immediate toll in the blast. The Observatory said that attack targeted a checkpoint and gave a toll of three dead.