Syria’s Intelligence Directorate prevented an attack by the Islamic State group on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in a Damascus suburb, a site of mass pilgrimage for Shi’ites, on Saturday.
The members of the cell were detained before they could ignite an explosion inside the shrine. The failed attack will intensify fears that the Islamic State is anticipating a ground to come back in Syria after the fall last month of President Bashar al-Assad.
Some natives and foreign leaders have worried that the country’s new leaders, who are from the Sunni Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that forced Assad out on Dec. 8, may enforce rigid Islamic governance on a country with numerous minority groups such as Druze, Kurds, Christians, and Shi’ites.
But the declaration by Syria’s de facto government that it prevented an attack on Shi’ite Muslims happened during reassurances it will protect religious minorities.
The General Intelligence Directorate is using all its resources to confront all efforts to aim the Syrian people in all their diversity,” an intelligence official said.
Islamic State, the Sunni Muslim militant group, has mentioned that previous attacks in and around the shrine, including last year and a bombing in 2017 in which at least 40 people lost their lives.
Defence of the shrine had been a rallying call during Syria’s 13-year civil war that drew Shi’ite militants from around the region to support former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
But Assad’s deposition last month significantly diminished the position of Shi’ite forces in Syria, including Iran and the Tehran-allied Lebanese group Hezbollah.
