Twin blasts near Damascus kill 12, wound dozens

BEIRUT – Two suicide bombings Saturday, claimed by Islamic State, killed 20 people in a Shiite suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the synchronized attacks occurred in Damascus’ southern area of Sayeda Zeinab, home to a shrine revered by Shiite Muslims.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility through its Aamaq news agency, which said there were three attacks carried out by suicide bombers. Aamaq said two attackers were wearing explosive belts while the third was in a car.

Syrian State TV reported the blasts in the Sayyida Zeinab area just south of Damascus killed 12 people and wounded 55 others.

The blasts came as U.S.-backed fighters in northern Syria tightened their siege on the IS stronghold of Manbij, where tens of the thousands of civilians are trapped by the fighting. The Syria Democratic Forces, a predominantly Kurdish group, encircled the town after capturing dozens of villages and farms near the Turkish border.

“The push toward Manbij slowed down because of fear for civilians there,” said Mustafa Bali, a Syrian journalist who visited the front line. “All telecommunications with the town have been cut,” he told the Associated Press by telephone.

The Observatory said tens of thousands of civilians in the town fear bombardment of residential areas at a time when most bakeries have stopped working and food is running out.

Manbij, one of IS’s largest strongholds in Syria’s Aleppo province, is a waypoint on a key supply line between the extremists’ de facto capital of Raqqa and the Turkish frontier.

The suburb where the bombing took place is home to a shrine by the same name, one of the most renowned in Shiite Islam. The heavily guarded shrine to Sayyida Zeinab, the daughter of the first Shiite imam, Ali, and granddaughter of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, receives thousands of Shiite pilgrims each year.

State news agency SANA said the first blast was caused by a suicide attacker wearing an explosives belt, while the second was the result of a suicide attacker in a car rigged with explosives.

SANA quoted Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi as blaming the “brutal massacres” on Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are the main supporters of the Syrian rebels trying to remove President Bashar Assad from power.

Sayyida Zeinab has been a frequent target of bombings in Syria’s civil war, now in its sixth year.

In the central province of Homs, a 31-truck aid convoy from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered the besieged town of Houla on Saturday, according to ICRC spokesman Pawel Krzysiek.

Krzysiek said the trucks are carrying food for 14,200 families as well as products such as mattresses, blankets, water pumps, hygiene kits, diapers and vaccines. In March, 28 trucks carrying relief entered Houla, he said.