Syrian intelligence says it thwarted ISIL attempt to blow up Shia shrine

According to state news agency SANA, Syrian authorities have stopped ISIL (ISIS) fighters from bombing a revered Shia shrine in a suburb of Damascus.

A source from Syria’s intelligence agency told SANA on Saturday that intelligence and security forces “successed in thwarting an attempt by ISIL to bomb the Sayyida Zeinab shrine.”

The intelligence official told SANA, “The General Intelligence Directorate is using all of its resources to combat any attempts to target the Syrian people in all their diversity.”

Four men allegedly belonging to an ISIL cell were captured in the countryside outside the capital, according to the interior ministry’s postings.

It also published images of equipment allegedly seized from the suspects, including smartphones, two rifles, three explosive devices and several hand grenades.

A Palestinian refugee and two Lebanese refugees’ identity papers were visible in the photos.

“The shrine they were trying to target is on the southern outskirts of Damascus”, Al Jazeera’s Hamza Mohamed said, reporting from Damascus.

“It’s an important religious site for Shia Muslims. They believe the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad is buried]there]”.

Mohamed noted that this shrine has been the subject of several previous attacks.

“In 2008, there was a car bomb …]in which] 17 people were killed”, he said.

ISIL also previously attacked Syria’s most popular Shia pilgrimage site, Damascus, and claimed responsibility for a double suicide attack that occurred close to the mausoleum in February 2016.

Additionally, the group claimed that at least 70 people had been killed in a triple explosion that occurred nearby several weeks prior.

A July 2023 bombing killed at least six people near the mausoleum.

Shia shrines have been frequent targets of attacks by Sunni militants, both in Syria and Iraq’s neighbor.

At the Sayyida Zeinab mausoleum’s gates, Iranian-backed guards used to be stationed there, but they fled last month just before Sunni-led rebels seized control of the country’s capital and toppled President Bashar al-Assad.