Bomb blast kills several people at a Shiite shrine near Damascus, Syria

Damascus- A bomb planted in a vehicle exploded outside the Sayeda Zeinab shrine city south of the Syrian capital Damascus on Thursday, killing several people and wounding others, Syrian state media reported.

A reporter for Syrian state television said a preliminary death toll indicated as many as six people may have died. The station broadcast footage of the charred front of a car.

One resident told Reuters he heard a loud blast around 5:30 p.m. (1430 GMT), after which security forces sealed off the area.

It was the second attack this week at the shrine. Two people were wounded in a separate blast on Tuesday. It is high season for the shrine as Shi’ite Muslims flock there to mark the mourning period of Ashura.

Sayeda Zeinab – the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammad – is venerated by Shi’ites and her shrine is a site of mass pilgrimage for Shi’ites from across the world. It has also been a magnet for Shi’ite militiamen in Syria.

Both Iran and the Tehran-allied Lebanese group Hezbollah have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war that erupted in 2011.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Thursday. The Islamic State group has claimed previous attacks on the site. One attack in 2017 killed at least 40 people.

Reuters