Syria rocked by seven bombings by ISIS in which nearly 150 are killed

Nearly 150 people have been killed in seven near-simultaneous explosions in northwest Syria for which ISIS has claimed responsibility. The targets chosen were bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in two seaside cities within President Bashar al Assad's coastal heartland. As indicated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights SOHR, 100 people were killed in Jableh and another 48 in Tartus - the dead included children.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 23 May 2016.

The breakup of the seven were five suicide attacks and two car bombs. In one of the attacks in a hospital, the attacker detonated explosives in the hospital emergency room after carrying victims of an earlier attack there. In the opinion of SOHR head, these were "without a doubt the deadliest attacks" in the cities since the six-year civil war began.
The attacks began at 7am BST with three explosions at a bus station in Tartus - this is the place where regime ally Russia has a naval facility. The ISIS has said that the explosions were in retaliation for Syrian and Russian airstrikes against the jihadists. They vowed to carry out "more devastating and bitter attacks".
Till now, more than 270,000 people have been killed in the civil war, while millions have been displaced. The Islamic State had emerged in 2014 and it had seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared an Islamic caliphate.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Russian airstrike in Syrian town of Ariha kills at least 40

Russian bombing raid on the Syrian town of Ariha controlled by rebel forces has left at least 40 dead and dozens wounded. The strike had struck a popular market place in the town of Ariha situated in north-west Syria, as informed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. As per SOHR, there are at least 60 dead and the attack by Russia was in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 29 November 2015.

The town of Ariha is in Idlib province which is an area controlled by anti-government forces, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and is not a stronghold of ISIS, which controls wide swathes of eastern Syria.
However, Russia says its airstrikes - which began at the end of September - are targeting ISIS and other 'terrorists' while the Western officials and Syrian rebels insist that most of the strikes have focused on central and northern Syria, where ISIS does not have a strong presence.
Since Russia is an ally of Bashar al-Assad, one can presume that the strikes are targeting those who have rebelled against the President.

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ISIS engineered twin blasts have killed at least 41 in Beirut shopping center. The location was a busy shopping street in a Beirut stronghold of the Shiite movement Hezbollah and is believed to be the worst such attack in years.
This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 13 November 2015.

As indicated by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, more than 200 people had been wounded, many of them in serious condition. The blasts appeared to be a return to a campaign of attacks that had targeted the group's strongholds between 2013 and 2014. The attacks were in revenge for its military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The blasts took place in a narrow shopping street in the Burj al- Barajneh neighborhood which is also home to a street market.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the blasts in an online statement. The explosives had been planted on a motorbike in an area frequented by Shiites.
The attacks were carried out by two suicide bombers and the body of a third, who had failed to detonate his explosive device, had been found at the scene of the second blast.

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Suicide bomber kills 47 school children in the city of Homs

A suicide bomber had killed 47 children in a school in the city of Homs in Syria giving rise to protests – the children were under the age of 12 news.sky.com. As a part of the protests, hundreds took to the streets calling for the city's governor Talal al Barazi to resign.
The Governor is accused of playing down the atrocity after saying 30 pupils were killed. Actually, the death toll was 54 as revealed by the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It seems the protest began as a mass funeral for the children, but gradually morphed into a demonstration as residents vented their rage over the attack on the school which lies in the Akrameh neighborhood of the government-controlled city- Its residents are mainly Alawite, like President Bashar al Assad.
SANA, the state news agency of Syria has described the school bombing as "a horrible human tragedy" and anti-Assad activists have also condemned the attack. However, no agency has claimed responsibility for the bombing.