Syria says 45 killed in Damascus area blast

At least 60 people were killed, including 25 Shia fighters, and dozens wounded on Sunday when a auto bomb and two suicide bombers struck in a district of Damascus where Syria’s holiest Shia shrine is located, a monitor said.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said the attackers detonated a auto bomb at a bus stop and that two suicide bombers then set off more explosives as rescuers rushed to the area.

Also Sunday, two explosions went off in the predominantly Shiite Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least 10 people, state TV said.

Sayyida Zeinab, south of Damascus, contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is particularly revered as a pilgrimage site by Shiite Muslims.

The Sayeda Zeinab shrine, in what was once a busy market area, has been a major symbol that has helped motivate Shiite militia recruits from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan fighting in Syria on the side of the government, with their leaders exhorting them to defend the shrine during the war.

The main opposition group backed down from its threat to boycott the talks but said the Syrian government must meet its demands if negotiations are to start. It said the dead fighters included Syrians and foreigners.

But while the opposition agreed to travel to Geneva after days of delays, it has so far refused to engage in indirect talks with the government.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the almost five-year conflict that killed 250,000, wounded more than a million and displaced millions as an “unfolding humanitarian catastrophe unmatched since World War II”.

In appealing for more aid, Jordanian officials usually cite the total number of Syrians in the country, including those who arrived before the outbreak of the 2011 Syria conflict, often in search of work.

“I appeal to both sides to make the most of this moment – seize the opportunity for serious negotiations”.

The Syrian government, speaking publicly for the first time since the talks began, suggested Sunday that even if the opposition does agree to join in the process, the government may not accept all members of its team as negotiating partners.

Syrian Kurdish group the PYD (regarded by Turkey as a terrorist group); so-called Islamic State (IS); al-Nusra Front.

Residents walk past damaged buildings after what activists said were air strikes by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in the Douma neighborhood of Damascus February 6, 2015.

“This confirms what the Syrian government has said over and over again – that there is a link between terrorism and those who sponsor terrorism from one side and some political groups that pretend to be against terrorism”, he said.