Al-Qaida-linked group claims deadly attack in Syrian capital
BEIRUT An al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility Sunday for twin blasts near holy shrines frequented by Shiites in the Syrian capital Damascus that killed at least 40 people as a suspected airstrike by the U.S.led coalition killed at least 17 in northern Syria, activists said.
The Levant Liberation Committee said in a statement that the attack was carried out by two of its suicide attackers, claiming that they targeted pro-Iranian and pro-government militiamen. It identified the suicide attackers as Abu Omar and Abu Aisha.
The Syrian government maintains that the attacks killed 40 people. However the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights increased its estimated death toll on Sunday to 74. Conflicting casualty estimates are common in the aftermath of violence in Syria.
The attacks in Damascus show that Syrian militant groups can still strike deep inside the capital where security is tight, with scores of checkpoints that search cars and ask people for identity cards.
The claim of responsibility comes at a time when al-Qaida's branch in Syria known as the Fatah al-Sham Front is trying to market itself as the only effective force against Assad and the main defender of the country's majority Sunnis.
Fatah al-Sham is opposed to peace talks between the opposition and the government that have taken place recently in Geneva and the Kazakh capital of Astana. Fatah al-Sham as well as the Islamic State group have been excluded from a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey that went into effect on Dec. 30.
Saturday’s attack also wounded over a hundred, most of them Iraqis, according to Syrian and Iraqi officials. The al-Qaida-linked group said the blasts were a message to Iran — a main backer of Assad.
“Iran and its militias have, from the start of the revolution, supported the tyrannical and criminal regime and have been killing and displacing our people,” the statement said. “This is a message to Iran and its militias that the right will not go wasted.”