twin damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Twin Damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Twin Damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims

File Photo: released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrians gather around burning buildings after
Damascus - Arab today

Twin bombs targeting Shia pilgrims on Saturday killed 46 people in Damascus, most of them Iraqis, a monitoring group said, in one of the bloodiest attacks in the Syrian capital.

 

There have been periodic bomb attacks in Damascus, but the stronghold of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been largely spared the destruction faced by other major cities in six years of civil war.

A roadside bomb detonated as a bus passed and a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Bab al-Saghir area, which houses several Shia mausoleums that draw pilgrims from around the world, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"There are also dozens of people wounded, some of them in a serious condition," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

State television said there were 40 dead and 120 wounded after "terrorists detonated two bombs."

It broadcast footage of several white buses with their windows shattered, some of them heavily charred.

Shoes, glasses and wheelchairs laid scattered on the ground covered in blood.

Syrian Interior Minister Mohammad Shaar said the attack targeted "pilgrims of various Arab nationalities."

"The sole aim was to kill," he said.

The Iraqi foreign ministry said around 40 of its nationals were among the dead and 120 among the wounded.

A witness told an AFP photographer that the second bomb struck as passers-by gathered at the scene of the first attack, while state television said a booby-trapped motorcycle was defused nearby.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Shia shrines are a frequent target of attack for Sunni extremists of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State militants (IS), not only in Syria but also in neighbouring Iraq.

The foreign ministry in Damascus condemned "the cowardly terrorist attack which comes in response to victories of the Syrian Arab Army" against Islamist militants .

The Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum to the south of Damascus, Syria's most visited Shia pilgrimage site, has been hit by several deadly bombings during the war.

Twin suicide bombings in the high-security Kafr Sousa district of the capital in January killed 10 people, eight of them soldiers.

That attack was claimed by former Al-Qaeda affiliate Fateh al-Sham Front which said that it had targeted Russian military advisers working with the Syrian army.

It was widely seen as an attempt to disrupt UN-brokered peace talks that took place the following month which to the anger of Fateh al-Sham were supported by its former Islamist rebel ally Ahrar al-Sham.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura has called a new round of talks for March 23.

Fateh al-Sham has been repeatedly bombed in its northwestern stronghold this year, not only by the Syrian army and its Russian ally but also by a US-led coalition battling IS in both Syria and Iraq.

The rift over the UN-brokered talks between the rebels and the government has also seen deadly clashes between Islamist militants and their former Islamist rebel allies.

The two groups had together seized virtually all of the northwestern province of Idlib but are now vying for territorial control.

In Baghdad, the foreign ministry blamed the Damascus attack on "takfiri groups", referring to Sunni extremists.

The bombings could provide the impetus for increased Iraqi strikes against IS in Syria, which Baghdad has already carried out near the border.

Iraqi forces launched an operation to retake Mosul -- the last IS-held city in Iraq -- in October.

They recaptured its eastern side and now have their sights set on its more densely populated west.

The Islamist militants' de facto capital in Syria, the northern city of Raqa, is under threat from advancing Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces as well as Syrian government troops supported by Russia.

Three hundred families of foreign IS fighters have fled Raqa in 24 hours on boats across the Euphrates River to the south, the Observatory said Saturday.

While bomb attacks are rare in Damascus, the capital has been the target of shelling by rebels who hold areas on the outskirts.

The deadliest bombing around Damascus targeted the Shia shrine of Sayeb Zeinab in February 2016, costing 134 lives, in an attack claimed by IS

Source: Ahram online

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

twin damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims twin damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

twin damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims twin damascus bombs kill 46 including many pilgrims

 



GMT 06:49 2012 Saturday ,01 September

Lamitta Frangieh on her \'Facebook Romance\'

GMT 08:26 2017 Wednesday ,08 February

Qatar spending $500m a week on World Cup projects

GMT 17:00 2017 Tuesday ,27 June

Saudi Arabia rebuts fake news on Turkey, Israel

GMT 10:31 2016 Monday ,12 December

Second Sydney airport cleared for take off

GMT 05:27 2017 Sunday ,16 April

GIB Capital wins 4 EMEA Finance Awards

GMT 13:58 2016 Friday ,30 December

Australia beat Pakistan to win Test series

GMT 10:07 2017 Monday ,17 April

Mark Hamill would like to play George Lucas

GMT 12:10 2016 Tuesday ,13 December

Over 30 dead as Kenya tanker crashes, explodes

GMT 02:13 2017 Monday ,25 September

December22nd-January20th

GMT 15:39 2017 Tuesday ,03 October

Bangladesh rescues 20 Rohingya held by racket gang

GMT 02:51 2017 Friday ,10 November

Under siege, Syria doctors forced to improvise care

GMT 12:18 2015 Tuesday ,14 July

Russia sack Capello as national team coach

GMT 16:07 2017 Saturday ,26 August

ISIS Claims Attack on Shiite Mosque in Afghanistan

GMT 13:47 2017 Monday ,27 February

China blue chips post worst day in 2 months

GMT 02:56 2017 Tuesday ,25 July

President Jokowi performs Eid Prayers in Padang

GMT 16:21 2017 Tuesday ,03 October

Sisi greets Guinea on independence anniversary

GMT 04:18 2017 Saturday ,16 September

Kim and Kanye expecting third baby via surrogate
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday