Syrian state media said Sayyida Zeinab was hit by two blasts on Saturday – a suicide attack at the entrance to the district and then a auto bomb attack in al-Teen street, not far from the shrine.
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At least eight people were killed in a twin bomb attack in a suburb of Damascus – home to Syria’s holiest Shia shrine.
The shrine, around 10 kilometres south of the centre of Damascus, is heavily guarded by pro-government forces but has still been the target of several Jihadist attacks, including those claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.
There were a number of women and children among the casualties, and some of the injuries were serious, Sana news agency said.
More than 150 people have been killed in at least three bombings close to Sayeda Zeinab already this year.
The second blast – a auto bomb – rocked Fig Street, sources from Damascus police told Sana. “This terrorist act demonstrates once again the inhumanity and brutality of all that Daesh does and all it stands for”, he said. Nearly every Shi’ite militia fighter bears insignia on his combat fatigues with the words “For your sake, Sayeda Zeinab”.
Non-jihadist rebels say Iran’s strong military intervention on the side of Assad, alongside its backing of other Shi’ite militias, is fuelling the sectarian dimension of the almost six-year Syrian civil war by drawing even more radical foreign Sunni jihadists into the country. The Syria Democratic Forces, a predominantly Kurdish group, encircled the town after capturing dozens of villages and farms near the Turkish border.
In other frontlines in northern Syria, two rebel sources said Russian and Syrian jets stepped up their relentless aerial bombing of their positions in the northern city of Aleppo.
In the central province of Homs, a 31-truck aid convoy from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered the besieged town of Houla on Saturday, according to ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek.
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The Observatory said tens of thousands of civilians in the town fear bombardment of residential areas at a time when most bakeries have stopped working and food is running out. Lifting sieges on rebel-held areas was a key demand by the opposition during peace talks that failed earlier this year in Geneva.
