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State news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed official in
the General Intelligence Service, that members of the IS cell
planning the attack were arrested. It quoted the official as
saying that the intelligence service is “putting all its
capabilities to stand in the face of all attempts to target the
Syrian people in all their spectrums.”
Sayyida Zeinab has been the site of past attacks on Shiite
pilgrims by IS — which takes an extreme interpretation of Sunni
Islam and considers Shiites to be infidels.
In 2023, a motorcycle planted with explosives detonated in
Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least six people and wounding dozens
a day before the Shiite holy day of Ashoura,
The announcement that the attack had been thwarted appeared to
be another attempt by the country's new leaders to reassure
religious minorities, including those seen as having been
supporters of the former government of Bashar Assad.
Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, was allied with Iran
and with the Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as well as
Iranian-backed Iraqi militias.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the former insurgent group that
led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad last month and is
now the de facto ruling party in the country, is a Sunni
Islamist group that formerly had ties with al-Qaida.
The group later split from al-Qaida, and HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa
has preached religious coexistence since assuming power in
Damascus.
Also Saturday, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati
arrived in Damascus to meet with al-Sharaa.
Relations between the two countries had been strained under
Assad, with Lebanon's political factions deeply divided between
those supporting and opposing Assad's rule.
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