Al Shams.

This is coolbert:

Further more from the latest edition of the DEBKAfile newsletter.

"Blasts near Russian military bases in Latakia province, 150 killed"

23 May.

"Over 150 people were killed in seven bombings on Monday in the Syrian coastal towns of Jableh and Tartus, The locations are close to two Russian military facilities: the Khmeimim airbase and the Tartus naval base. There were up to three explosions in the coastal town of Jableh near the local railway terminal. RIA Novosti and state TV also report a fourth explosion, at the emergency unit of a local hospital. The town appears to have been shelled as well with mortar fire."

Combat units of the Islamic State reaching al-Shams. Called by westerners the Levant. In the earliest Islamic time the Muslim armies moving northward out of the Hejaz [that area of the Arabian peninsula bordering the Red Sea] their primary target al-Shams. The eastern seacoast of the Mediterranean extending inland as far as the road connecting Aleppo, Homs, Hama and Damascus. That fertile land as described in the Bible "a land of milk and honey". Most desirable.

The significance of these attacks to the Salafist cannot be minimized.

coolbert.