IS Claims Responsibility For Deadly Bombings Across Syria

The Islamic State (IS) extremist group has claimed responsibility for several attacks across Syria that killed at least 48 people in mostly government-held areas.

The IS-run Aamaq news agency said the group was behind the "simultaneous" attacks on September 5 in Damascus, coastal Tartus, central Homs, and Hasakeh in the northeast.

Syrian state media reported that at least 35 people were killed and 43 others wounded in two simultaneous blasts that hit the Arzouna bridge area at the entrance to the northwestern coastal city of Tartus.

Syrian state television said the first explosion was a car bomb and the second was a suicide belt detonated as rescue workers came to the scene of the first incident.

Another three people died when a car bomb struck the city of Homs at the entrance to the Bab Tadmur neighborhood.

Syrian state television also reported that one person died in an explosion near the town of Al-Saboura, along a road that leads onto the Beirut-Damascus highway.

Meanwhile, a bomber also struck in the northeastern city of Hasakeh, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces, killing at least eight more people.

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP