Suicide, car bomb blasts hit Damascus suburb, at least 20 dead
Two blasts rocked the Syrian capital Saturday, causing at least 20 deaths according to a monitoring group, and many more injuries. The Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the bombings.
At least 20 people were killed and scores wounded in twin suicide and car bomb blasts on Saturday in a Damascus suburb that contains Syria's holiest Shi'ite Muslim shrine, a monitoring group said.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terror organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.
State media did not give further details about the bombings in the Sayeda Zeinab area, where at least three bomb attacks claimed by Islamic State militants have killed and wounded scores of people this year.
A Shi'ite religious cleric on the state-run Ikhbariyah TV channel said the car bomb blast was not far from the shrine area in the main al-Taen street.
The heavily garrisoned area is a well known stronghold of Lebanon's powerful Shi'ite Hezbollah group, a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Thousands of Iraqi and Afghan Shi'ite militia recruits who volunteer to fight against the Sunni rebel groups trying to bring down Assad's government normally come to the area before being sent to frontlines across Syria.
They say they come to Syria to defend the Sayeda Zeinab shrine from radical Sunni extremists.
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