Syrian intelligence agency says it thwarted a planned Islamic State attack on a Shiite shrine

Intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government say they have thwarted a plan by the Islamic State group to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab. State news agency SANA reports, citing an unnamed official in the General Intelligence Service, that members of the IS cell planning the attack were arrested. The announcement of the thwarted attack appears to be another attempt by the country’s new leaders to reassure religious minorities, including those seen as having been supporters of the former government of Bashar Assad.