Syrian intelligence says it foiled ISIL’s attempt to blow up a Shia shrine. ISIL/ISIS News
The Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Damascus has previously been targeted by ISIL and other armed groups in Syria.
Syrian authorities have foiled an attempt by ISIL fighters to blow up a revered Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb, state news agency SANA reported.
A source in Syria’s intelligence agency told SANA on Saturday that intelligence and security forces “succeeded in thwarting an ISIL attempt to bomb the inside of the Sayyida Zaynab shrine”, adding that several people had been arrested.
“The General Intelligence Directorate is using all its resources to confront all attempts to target the Syrian people in their diversity,” the intelligence official told SANA.
The Interior Ministry posted photos of four people it said were members of an ISIL cell, who were arrested in rural areas outside the capital.
It also published photographs of equipment allegedly seized from the suspects, including smartphones, two rifles, three explosive devices and several hand grenades.
The photos show the identity cards of two Lebanese and a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon.
“The shrine they were trying to target is on the southern outskirts of Damascus,” Al Jazeera’s Hamza Mohammed said, reporting from Damascus.
“It is an important religious site for Shia Muslims. “They believe the Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter is buried (there).”
Mohammed said this is not the first time that the shrine has been targeted.
“There was a car bomb explosion in 2008…(in which) 17 people were killed,” he said.
ISIL has previously targeted the Damascus Shrine, Syria’s most visited Shia pilgrimage site, and claimed responsibility for a double suicide attack near the mausoleum in February 2016 that killed 134 people.
The group also claimed a triple blast near the sanctuary several weeks ago that claimed at least 70 lives.
At least six people were killed in a bomb blast near the mausoleum in July 2023.
Shia shrines in both Syria and neighboring Iraq have been the target of frequent attacks by Sunni groups such as ISIL.
Iran-backed guards used to be posted at the gates of Sayyida Zainab’s mausoleum, but they fled last month, shortly before Sunni-led rebels entered the Syrian capital and ousted President Bashar al-Assad.
Iran-backed fighters have been al-Assad’s main supporters since the war broke out in 2011.
