Syria envoy to talks says opposition not serious

AT least 50 people have been killed and scores wounded in a triple suicide bombing near a revered Shiite shrine outside the Syrian capital Damascus.

State TV showed several burning cars and a scorched bus, as well as blown out windows, twisted metal and large holes in the facade of a nearby apartment building.

Dozens more were wounded in the blasts, one of which was caused by a vehicle bomb, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said. The blasts happened at 7.50am local time (2250 Sunday AEDT).

Syria’s state news agency SANA said that the blasts went off in Sayyda Zeinab, a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb of the Syrian capital, wounding more than 100 people.

The suburb is named after an important Shiite mosque.

The attack came as representatives from the Syrian government and opposition groups had started gathering in Geneva for UN-sponsored peace talks aimed at reaching a political solution to Syria’s civil war.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday’s attack. Shiite militant groups allied with Bashar al-Assad’s forces often use the defense of the shrine as a rallying cry for recruits.

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.

Overview of the Syria peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 29, 2016.

Assad’s government has long referred to all those fighting to overthrow him as terrorists, but has agreed to negotiations with some armed groups in the latest talks.

The two sides are divided over Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam, which the Syrian government and its close ally Russian Federation view as extremists.

A Syrian official says President Bashar Assad’s government will “never accept” the removal of two militant groups from a list of terrorist organizations barred from peace talks.

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

HNC spokesman Salem al-Mislet told The Associated Press that the violence against civilians must stop first, saying the U.N. Security Council should put “pressure on Russian Federation to stop these crimes in Syria”, he said.

The area surrounding the Sayeda Zeinab shrine was subjected to heavy clashes in the early stages of the war but has since been secured by the Syrian regime and Shia militias led by Hezbollah, which has sealed the area off by building roadblocks around it.