Blasts kill 48 in Syria

A string of bomb attacks hit across mostly government-controlled areas of Syria yesterday, killing several dozen people including at least 35 in President Bashar al-Assad's coastal stronghold of Tartus, state media said.

At least 48 people died in the multiple blasts, with dozens also wounded in the double bombing outside of Tartus city, which is home to a Russian naval base.

The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Other attacks hit government-held Homs city, an army checkpoint on a road outside Damascus, and a Kurdish security forces checkpoint in Hasakeh city.

In Tartus, two blasts targeted the Arzuna bridge, "the first a car bomb and the second a suicide bomber who detonated his explosive belt when people gathered to help the wounded", according to state television.

Quoting the head of Al-Bassel hospital in Tartus, the channel said 35 people had been killed and 43 others wounded in the attack.

In the northeast of the country, at least eight people were killed by a bomber on a bike in the city of Hasakeh, which is mostly controlled by Kurdish forces, though the regime is also present.

Meanwhile, IS has lost control of its last territories on the border with Turkey, monitoring groups say, in a major blow to the group's ability to receive foreign fighters from the rest of the world.

Speaking to The Independent, a spokesperson for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said IS had conceded control of its last two villages on the border, retreating to positions around 7-8km to the south.

Rami Abdulrahman, from the UK-based Observatory, said: "Everything is finished. There is no more Isis at the border."

After three years in control of portions of the border, IS's grasp over the last villages dissolved in a matter of hours.

Three hours before the Turkish-rebel advance was complete, IS was still reported as holding four villages. Two hours before, the Observatory had told The Independent: "There is only 4-6km still under IS control at the border, just two villages and a farm, and after that they [FSA] will control the whole area. It will be a few hours, and then Isis will be cut off from the rest of the world."