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| Blasts Hit 2 Syrian Cities in Assad Stronghold, Killing Scores | Blasts Hit 2 Syrian Cities in Assad Stronghold, Killing Scores |
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| BEIRUT, Lebanon — A series of coordinated blasts struck two cities in northwestern Syria on Monday, rare attacks that killed dozens in a part of the country seen as a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad and his forces. | BEIRUT, Lebanon — A series of coordinated blasts struck two cities in northwestern Syria on Monday, rare attacks that killed dozens in a part of the country seen as a stronghold of President Bashar al-Assad and his forces. |
| Syrian state television broadcast images from the cities of Jableh and Tartus of shattered buildings, ambulances and firefighters rushing about, as well as blood spots on the ground. The Syrian state news agency, SANA, said 78 people had been killed. | |
| The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which opposes the government and tracks the conflict from Britain through contacts on the ground, said that at least 101 people had been killed. | The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which opposes the government and tracks the conflict from Britain through contacts on the ground, said that at least 101 people had been killed. |
| The rights group described two coordinated assaults and seven explosions, with car bombs being detonated at the cities’ central bus stations followed by attacks by suicide bombers. | The rights group described two coordinated assaults and seven explosions, with car bombs being detonated at the cities’ central bus stations followed by attacks by suicide bombers. |
| The blasts shattered the relative calm along the coast by striking civilian targets in a part of Syria that is firmly in the government’s grip, where support for Mr. Assad is strong. While the concentration of Alawites, who belong to the same sect as Mr. Assad, is high, the area also has large Muslim and Christian populations. And as the civil war has consumed other parts of Syria, many Sunnis have sought refuge along the coast. | The blasts shattered the relative calm along the coast by striking civilian targets in a part of Syria that is firmly in the government’s grip, where support for Mr. Assad is strong. While the concentration of Alawites, who belong to the same sect as Mr. Assad, is high, the area also has large Muslim and Christian populations. And as the civil war has consumed other parts of Syria, many Sunnis have sought refuge along the coast. |
| Russia, which backs Mr. Assad and has been supporting his forces with airstrikes and other military aid, has a base in Tartus, its only such installation on the Mediterranean Sea. | |
| The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did not say who had carried out the attacks. Syrian state television said that Ahrar al-Sham, a powerful Islamist rebel group, had claimed responsibility, but there were no immediate statements on the group’s social media accounts. | The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights did not say who had carried out the attacks. Syrian state television said that Ahrar al-Sham, a powerful Islamist rebel group, had claimed responsibility, but there were no immediate statements on the group’s social media accounts. |