Amid shaky start to Syria talks, IS-claimed blast kills 45

“Terrorists” detonated a vehicle bomb at a bus terminal, followed shortly by two suicide bombings that targeted onlookers and medics at the scene of the initial attack, an Interior Ministry official said.

DAMASCUS – At least 45 people were killed and 110 wounded on Sunday in bomb blasts near the revered Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab outside the Syrian capital Damascus, state media said, as talks in Geneva to try to end the conflict in Syria struggled to get started.

“It’s the duty of the responsibility of members of the Security Council to put the pressure on Russian Federation to stop these crimes in Syria”, opposition spokesman Salem al-Mislet told The Associated Press on Sunday.

A spokeswoman for de Mistura said the United Nations mediator had met the opposition delegation at its hotel, while his deputy Ramzi Ezzedine Ramzi visited the government delegates at theirs.

Hours after an ISIS-claimed triple bombing killed at least 45 in Damascus, Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday addressed the ongoing Syrian conflict, speaking starkly about a humanitarian crisis in which starving villagers have been forced to eat grass and leaves, but also hopefully of creating a “peaceful, pluralistic Syria”.

The main opposition group, the High Negotiations Committee, belatedly sent a delegation to Geneva from its base in Saudi Arabia but declared that it would engage in talks with the government only if Damascus first took several steps, including a halt to bombing and besieging rebel-held zones.

The Islamic State group has not been invited to attend talks.

“The attack near the Sayeda Zeinab shrine is clearly aimed to disrupt the attempts to start a political process”, Mogherini said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters.

Moscow has objected to two Islamist rebel groups, Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, taking any part in the talks.

He said opposition members have been “exchanging with me some of their own ideas and they will let you know and let me know when and how they can be part of this exercise”.

Scores of people were also reported to have been wounded. He says a ceasefire would allow all to focus on defeating the Islamic State group. The smoke is still rising from one of the cars on the side of the street.

The Sayyida Zeinab mosque contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad and is particularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shia Muslims.

Kerry once again denounced the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying it was “by far the primary source of killing, torture, and deprivation in this war”, but his appeal seemed focused more on opposition groups that have so far balked at direct talks with the Syrian government, even as negotiators gathered in Geneva.