At least 40 people were killed and dozens wounded in five explosions on Monday morning in mostly government-held areas in Syria. State media reports that the blasts hit the coastal city of Tartous, the central city of Homs, the suburbs of the capital Damascus as well as the northeastern city of Hasaka, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces but where the government maintains a presence. Two of the explosions struck the highway outside the entrance to the Syrian port-city of Tartus, in western Syria, which houses a Russian naval base. RT reports: “We received information about a double explosion at the entrance to the city of Tartus, on the government highway under Arazona bridge,” RIA Novosti reports, citing local militia. Sana news agency reported that some 30 people have been killed in the blasts and some 45 injured. The first explosion was a car bomb. The second took place when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt as people gathered to help the injured from the first incident, a source at Tartous Police Command told the news agency. al-Arzunah Bridge, Tartous pic.twitter.com/mdoEt8jPYf — Hassan Ridha (@sayed_ridha) September 5, 2016 Tartus is the second-largest port city in Syria. It has been used, first [...]
