W3c validation error

I got the following message from W3c
Line 313, Column 17: unclosed start-tag requires SHORTTAG YES
<div class=”tags”><img src=”https://www………c…
?
The construct <foo<bar> is valid in HTML (it is an example of the rather obscure “Shorttags” feature) but its use is not recommended. In most cases, this is a typo that you will want to fix. If you really want to use shorttags, be aware that they are not well implemented by browsers.

I have modified the single.php file to display an icon for tags with help (I do not know anything beyond css myself), the code for this line is:

<div class="tags"><img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/tag.jpg" alt="<?php _e('Tags', 'jfr_theme') ?>" /><?php the_tags('', ' ', ''); ?></div>

Something is missing, but what is it and where should it go? would appreciate any hints!

Thanks!