BEIRUT — At least 45 people were killed and 110 wounded by a car bomb in the Sayeda Zeinab district of Damascus, where Syria’s holiest Shiite shrine is located, the interior ministry said.
State television showed footage of burning buildings and wrecked cars in the neighbourhood.
Syrian state news agency SANA, quoting an interior ministry source, said yesterday that a group of militants had detonated a car bomb near a public transport garage in the neighbourhood’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.
The heavily populated area in the south of the city is a site of pilgrimage for Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world.
The explosions occurred as representatives of Syria’s government and its divided opposition began convening in Geneva for the first United Nations (UN)-mediated peace talks in two years.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki was quoted as saying the attacks were prompted by "terror groups" that sought to "raise their morale after a string of defeats" by the army.
The UN has said it is aiming for six months of talks, first seeking a ceasefire and later working towards a political settlement for Syria. The nearly five-year conflict has killed more than 250,000 people, driven more than 10-million from their homes and drawn in global powers.
The Sayeda Zeinab shrine area witnessed heavy clashes in the first few years of the war, but has since been secured by the Syrian army and Shiite militias led by Hezbollah, which has set up protective roadblocks around it.
The shrine houses the grave of the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Taleb, the cousin of prophet Mohammed, whom Shiites consider the rightful successor to the prophet.
Reuters
People inspecting the bomb site in the district of al-Sayeda Zainab in southern Damascus, Syria, 31 January 2016. Reports state at least 45 people were killed in three blasts near the Shiite shrine of al-Sayeda Zainab. Picture: EPA
BEIRUT — At least 45 people were killed and 110 wounded by a car bomb in the Sayeda Zeinab district of Damascus, where Syria’s holiest Shiite shrine is located, the interior ministry said.
State television showed footage of burning buildings and wrecked cars in the neighbourhood.
Syrian state news agency SANA, quoting an interior ministry source, said yesterday that a group of militants had detonated a car bomb near a public transport garage in the neighbourhood’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.
The heavily populated area in the south of the city is a site of pilgrimage for Shiites from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world.
The explosions occurred as representatives of Syria’s government and its divided opposition began convening in Geneva for the first United Nations (UN)-mediated peace talks in two years.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki was quoted as saying the attacks were prompted by "terror groups" that sought to "raise their morale after a string of defeats" by the army.
The UN has said it is aiming for six months of talks, first seeking a ceasefire and later working towards a political settlement for Syria. The nearly five-year conflict has killed more than 250,000 people, driven more than 10-million from their homes and drawn in global powers.
The Sayeda Zeinab shrine area witnessed heavy clashes in the first few years of the war, but has since been secured by the Syrian army and Shiite militias led by Hezbollah, which has set up protective roadblocks around it.
The shrine houses the grave of the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Taleb, the cousin of prophet Mohammed, whom Shiites consider the rightful successor to the prophet.
Reuters
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