Blast Wounds Two In Shrine Town Near Syria’s Damascus (Photos)
On July 25, two civilians were wounded when a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded in the shrine town of Sayyidah Zaynab near the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The town, which is located some 16 kilometers to the south of Damascus, is one of the most important destinations for Shia Muslim pilgrims, who come from different parts of Syria as well as from Lebanon, Iraq and even Iran.
A source in Damascus Police Command told the official Syrian Arab News Agency that the booby-trapped motorcycle exploded while a bus was passing by. The wounded were quickly evacuated to a nearby hospital, according to the unnamed source.
The Shia shrine town was the target of several terrorist attacks in the past, even before the outbreak of the war in Syria. In 2008, a car bomb attack on the intersection leading up to the town’s shrine killed at least 17 people and left 17 others wounded.
In the early years of the war, several terrorist groups, including the al-Qaed-affiliated al-Nusra Front [now known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham], attempted to capture Sayyidah Zaynab. However, the town was eventually secured by the Syrian military and its allies.
During 2016, three bombings orchestrated by ISIS rocked the town. The first attack, which took place on January 31 of the year, claimed the lives of 71 people and wounded more than 40 others. The second, which was on February 21, killed 134 people and wounded at least 180 others. 12 people were killed and 55 others were wounded in the third attack, which took place on June 11.
The town, which is said to be a stronghold of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, was also the target of several waves of Israeli strikes over the last few years.
The new bombing was likely carried out by ISIS or another terrorist group to disrupt peace and terrorize the locals in Sayyidah Zaynab and nearby areas.
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