Syrian authorities have foiled an attempt by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) to blow up a revered Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb, a source in Syria’s intelligence agency told the state news agency. FURY on Saturday.
Intelligence and security forces “managed to thwart an attempt by ISIS to carry out a bombing raid inside the Sayyeda Zainab shrine,” the source said. The Interior Ministry released photographs of four men it identified as members of an ISIS cell, arrested in the countryside outside the capital.
He posted images of equipment allegedly confiscated from the suspects, including smartphones, two rifles, what appeared to be three explosive devices and several hand grenades. The photographs showed the identity documents of two Lebanese and a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon.
Iranian-backed guards used to be deployed at the gates of the Sayyeda Zainab mausoleum, the most visited Shiite pilgrimage site in Syria.
But they fled shortly before rebels stormed the Syrian capital last month and toppled President Bashar al-Assad. The Iranian-backed fighters had been key Assad supporters since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Shiite shrines are a frequent target of ISIS attacks in both Syria and neighboring Iraq.
ISIS previously attacked the Damascus shrine, claiming responsibility for a July 2023 bomb attack that killed at least six people near the mausoleum.
It is the first time that the new authorities in Damascus claim to have thwarted an ISIS attack.
ISIS seized large swaths of Syrian and Iraqi territory in the early years of the civil war and declared a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014. US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces defeated the proto-state in 2019, but ISIS fighters have maintained his presence. in the vast Syrian desert.
