The ISIS terror group has claimed responsibility for bombings near a revered Shia shrine outside the Syrian capital Damascus that killed at least 45 people and injured over a 100.
Syrian state news agency SANA, quoting an interior ministry source, said a group of terrorists had detonated a car bomb near a public transport garage in the neighborhood’s Koua Sudan area. Two suicide bombers then blew themselves up nearby as people were being rescued.
“Bodies were still being pulled from the wreckage,” a witness told state news channel Ikhbariyah.
In a statement circulated on social media, the terror group said, “Two soldiers of the caliphate carried out martyrdom operations in a den of the infidels in the Sayyida Zeinab area, killing nearly 50 and injuring around 120”.
The explosions occurred as representatives of Syria’s government and its divided opposition began convening in Geneva for the first UN-mediated peace talks in two years.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki was quoted as saying the attacks were prompted by “terror groups” who sought to “raise their morale after a string of defeats” by the army.
Sayyida Zeinab, south of the capital, contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is particularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shiite Muslims.
It has continued to attract pilgrims from Syria and beyond, particularly Shiites from Iran, Lebanon, and Iraq, throughout the war.
The area around the shrine has been targeted on several occasions, and heavy security has been set up around it in a bid to protect it from damage.
Takfiri Muslim extremist groups like ISIS consider Shiites heretics and have frequently targeted them in attacks.
