Twin blasts near Damascus kill 12, wounds dozens

Civilians and members of the Syrian army inspect the damage after an attack by suicide bombers in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab. (Omar Sanadiki/Reuters)

By Bassem Mroue June 11 at 3:40 PM

BEIRUT — Suicide bombers struck close to Damascus on Saturday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombings through its Amaq news agency.

There were reportedly three attacks carried out by suicide bombers. Aamaq said two attackers were wearing explosive belts while the third used a car.

Syrian state TV said the blasts in the Sayyida Zeinab area, just south of the Syrian capital, killed 12 people and wounded 55 others. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the two explosions.

It was the latest attack to hit the predominantly Shiite area in recent months. Sayyida Zeinab has been a frequent target of bombings in Syria’s conflict, now in its sixth year.

The suburb is home to the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, one of the most renowned in Shiite Islam. The heavily guarded shrine to the daughter of the first Shiite imam, Ali, and granddaughter of the prophet Muhammad, receives thousands of Shiite pilgrims each year.

 

State news agency SANA said the first blast was caused by one of the suicide attackers with an explosive belt, while the second was the result of the one in a car rigged with explosives. SANA quoted Prime Minister Wael al-Halki as blaming the “brutal massacres” on Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are the main supporters of the Syrian rebels trying to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power.

Saturday’s blasts came as U.S.-backed fighters in northern Syria tightened their siege on the Islamic State stronghold of Manbij, where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped by the fighting. The Syria Democratic Forces, a predominantly Kurdish group, encircled the town after capturing dozens of villages and farms near the Turkish border.

“The push toward Manbij slowed down because of fear for civilians there,” said Mustafa Bali, a Syrian journalist who visited the front line. “All telecommunications with the town have been cut,” he told the Associated Press by telephone.

The Observatory said that most bakeries have stopped working in the town and that food is running out. It said airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition have killed 30 civilians, including 11 children, since the SDF began its offensive on May 31.

Manbij, one of the largest Islamic State strongholds in Syria’s Aleppo province, is a way station on a key supply line between the extremists’ de facto capital of Raqqa and the Turkish frontier.

The United Nations estimates that 592,700 people live under siege in Syria, with about 452,700 of them under blockades by government forces.

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. The trucks were carrying food for 14,200 families as well as products such as mattresses, blankets, water pumps, hygiene kits, diapers and vaccines.

This past week, the United Nations said the Syrian government had approved access to 15 of 19 besieged areas.

Lifting sieges on rebel-held areas was a key demand by the opposition during peace talks that failed this year in Geneva.