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In a message posted later on its Amaq outlet, the Islamic State group said it was behind the attack on "Alawite concentrations" in the Syrian coast, in reference to the community of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

IS has in the past claimed responsibility for similar attacks targeting regime-held areas of Homs city, in central Syria. 

The blasts are the most violent yet to hit the mostly pro-regime cities in the five-year conflict. The regime's coastal bastions have so far been spared the worst of the fighting.

The first blast took place in the Jableh bus terminal, local sources told °®Âþµº. The blast was followed by explosions at the Electricity Department and a local government hospital, some possibly the result of reported rocket fire.

At least two of the blasts were suicide bombs, Reuters quoted the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying, putting the total number of explosions at seven.

There were four in Jableh, in Latakia province, and three in the Tartous province's capital.

The opposition-leaning Observatory and state-run news outlets alike reported people killed and wounded in both cities along the Mediterranean coast, but did not give a specific number.

The state-run Ikhbariya news channel broadcast what it said were scenes of one of the blasts in Jableh, showing several twisted and incinerated cars and minivans.

Ikhbariya reported in a news flash that three explosions hit Jableh. It described the blasts as "terrorist attacks".

State TV said one blast in Jableh took place near the government hospital.

It said one of the Tartous explosions was a car bomb, and that another was from a suicide bomber. The blasts hit a residential area, it said.

Tartous is home to Russia's only Mediterranean naval base.