Death toll in bombings claimed by the Islamic State in Syria yesterday has gone up to 71. Many alos injured near a revered Shiite shrine outside the Syrian capital Damascus. The blasts, which came as the UN’s Syria envoy struggled to convene fresh peace talks in Geneva, tore a massive crater in the road.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said 71 people were killed in two blasts near the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, including five children. Official news agency SANA said, the first blast was caused by a car bomb that detonated at a bus station near the shrine. It said two suicide bombers then set off their explosive belts when people gathered at the scene.