EXPLOSION KILLS SEVERAL PEOPLE AT A SHRINE NEAR SYRIA’S CAPITAL

Thu 27 July 2023:

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

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 Shia Muslims flock there to mark the mourning period of Ashura.

Sayeda Zeinab – the grand-daughter of the Prophet Mohammad – is venerated by Shia and her shrine is a site of mass pilgrimage for Shias from across the world. It has also been a magnet for Shia 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 Daesh group has claimed previous attacks on the site. One attack in 2017 killed at least 40 people.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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