At least 101 people died and 120 were wounded in multiple bomb attacks on Monday on two Syrian cities under the control of the Syrian government led by President Bashar al Assad, Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR) said on its Facebook page.
In an earlier report, SOHR said that 72 people had died in the Mediterranean city of Tartus and Jableh. Three bomb attacks had killed 34 people. Of the three, two were suicide attacks, SOHR was quoted as saying by Agence France Presse. In Jableh, which is in northern Syria, 38 people died in four bombings. Of the four, three were suicide blasts, the U.K.-based observatory said.
Four Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants were killed in Deir ez Zor by regime forces, tweeted SOHR on Monday.
The SOHR website is currently suspended.
The two cities, which were strongholds of Assad, were attacked by the Islamic State group. They claimed responsibility in a statement they posted online. The target of the attacks was the minority community of Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, CBS News reported.
This was the first time that Tartus, where Russia reportedly has a naval base, was attacked since the war began in 2011, according to CBS News. Jableh has been under attack since 2012.
The U.S., Russia and the United Nations are working on a peace agreement in the conflict-ridden state. A ceasefire was brokered in February 2016, but it fell apart in a few weeks as fighting resumed. The Islamic State group, however, was not a party to the ceasefire and peace talks. The U.S. and Russia-led coalition had said that they would continue to bomb the Islamic State strongholds.
