Roadside device and suicide bomber target Bab al-Saghir neighbourhood of Syrian capital, home to several Shia mausoleums

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Two explosions have killed at least 40 people and wounded 120 in the old city of Damascus, the Iraqi foreign ministry said, in one of the bloodiest attacks yet in the heart of the Syrian capital.

Ahmed Jamal, Iraq’s foreign ministry spokesman, issued a statement condemning Saturday’s attacks, and said initial reports suggested many of the dead were Iraqis.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a roadside bomb detonated as a bus drove past and a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Bab al-Saghir area, which houses several Shia Islam mausoleums that draw pilgrims from around the world.

The Sana state news agency reported that “two bombs planted by terrorists exploded near the Bab al-Saghir cemetery in Bab Musalla, causing dead and wounded”.

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Sunni extremists from al-Qaida and Islamic State frequently target Shia shrines in Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

The Sayeda Zeinab mausoleum to the south of Damascus, Syria’s most visited Shia pilgrimage site, has been hit by several deadly bombings during the six-year civil war.

Twin suicide bombings in the high-security Kafr Sousa district of the capital in January killed 10 people, eight of them soldiers. The Fateh al-Sham front, a former al-Qaida affiliate, claimed responsibility for that attack and said it had targeted Russian military advisers working with the Syrian army.

Syria, Russia and the US-led coalition fighting Isis have repeatedly attacked Fateh al-Sham’s stronghold in north-western Syria this year.

Damascus is sometimes shelled by rebel groups who hold areas on the outskirts of the city, but bombings and suicide attacks are relatively rare.

In December, a seven-year-old girl wearing an explosive belt blew herself up outside a police station in Midan district, wounding three officers.

Two blasts near state security agencies in Kafr Sousa killed more than 40 people and wounded around 150 in December 2011, the Syrian government said at the time.