Bombs kill 45, wound 110 near Syria shrine

At least 50 people were killed Sunday in a triple explosion near a Shiite shrine south of Damascus, an attack claimed by the Islamic State Group (EI) on the day of talks trying to find a solution to the Syrian conflict.

The Britain-based monitor said 47 people were killed in the blasts, including a auto bomb that targeted a checkpoint, and included non-Syrian Shiite militants without specifying their nationalities.

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

The explosions came two days after Syrian peace talks in Geneva began.

Residents and soldiers loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad inspect damage after a suicide attack in Sayeda Zeinab, a district of southern Damascus, Syria January 31, 2016.

The opposition delegation is to meet with de Mistura later Sunday, al-Mislet said.

NPR’s Alison Meuse, reporting from Beirut for our Newscast unit, says the Islamic State has claimed responsibility through its media outlets.

The delegation has named Army of Islam official Mohammed Alloush as its chief negotiator.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) evaluated the results of 58 dead including 20 civilians, including children, as well as 25 non-Syrian Shiite militants, without specifying their nationality.

The talks – which involve the Syrian government and some opposition groups meeting with the United Nations, but not directly with each other – had a rocky start, with opposition groups initially refusing to attend and many involved in the conflict feeling alienated by the U.N.’s announcement of the talk’s beginning.

It said the cause of the second blast was not immediately clear. The dispute over the succession led to the major Sunni-Shi’ite schism in Islam. The mainstream opposition views both groups as fellow rebels, despite their ideological differences, while the Syrian government and its close ally Russian Federation view them as extremists.

“We will neither sit down directly with terrorists, nor have dialogue with them”, he said.