Al-Qaeda ally targets Lebanese Shia pilgrims in attack on Damascus bus

Syria’s state news agency Sana said the 'terrorist bombing' involved five kilograms of explosives

A Syrian soldier gathers evidence after an explosion occurred on a bus in central Damascus (Reuters)

A bomb tore apart a bus thought to be carrying Lebanese Shia Muslim pilgrims in Damascus yesterday, killing at least six people and wounding 19 in a rare attack at the centre of the Syrian capital, a Reuters witness and local media said.

A social media account linked to al-Qaeda’s Jabhat al-Nusra said the hardline Sunni group was behind what it described as a suicide attack on the bus near a market place.

Syria’s state news agency Sana said the “terrorist bombing” involved five kilograms of explosives and that authorities had defused a second device.

Earlier yesterday, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi told parliament that Syria aimed to “flush out all terrorists” in 2015.

The bus had been carrying pilgrims close to the Sayyida Ruqayya shrine, a local television channel reported.

The Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters over the border to support Syrian government forces battling an insurgency which has drawn in countries across the Middle East and stoked sectarian tensions.

Reuters