ISIS claims responsibility for deadly Syria blasts

At least 45 people were killed and dozens more wounded on Sunday in three bombings near the Shiite Sayyida Zeinab shrine south of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The blasts injured 40 others Sunday in Sayeda Zeynab, according to SANA news agency.

Syrian state media say the blasts near Sayyida Zeinab were caused by a vehicle bomb and two suicide bombers.

The attack happened as the government and opposition groups gathered in Geneva in a bid to start talks aimed at a political solution to the conflict.

An IS-affiliated website said the blasts were carried out by members of the extremist group, which controls large areas in both Syria and Iraq.

State television footage showed burning buildings and wrecked cars in the neighbourhood.

Two suicide bombers then blew themselves up nearby as people were being rescued.

“The aim of this cowardly and desperate terrorist attack is to raise the morale of the defeated terrorist groups following the great victories that our courageous army has accomplished in several areas”, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi told SANA.

The shrine houses the grave of the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Taleb, the cousin of Prophet Mohammed, whom Shi’ites consider the rightful successor to the prophet.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group close to Syria’s foreign-backed opposition, had initially reported eight deaths in the blasts. The dispute over the succession led to the major Sunni-Shi’ite schism in Islam.

BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says Shia fighters from around the region have joined the conflict in Syria on the grounds that they wish to protect the shrine from the civil war.