Dozens killed, 100 injured after suicide bombings in Damascus

At least 45 people were killed and 110 wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in Syrian capital Damascus, the interior ministry said.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks, according to Amaq, a news agency that supports the group. It said two operations “hit the most important stronghold of Shi’ite militas in Damascus.”

State television showed footage of burning buildings and wrecked cars in the neighbourhood close to the heavily populated Sayeda Zeinab district of Damascus, the location of Syria’s holiest Shia shrine. The area in the south of the city is a site pilgrimage for Shias from Iran, Lebanon and other parts of the Muslim world.

Syrian state news agency SANA, quoting an interior ministry source, said a group of militants had detonated a car bomb near a public transport garage in the neighborhood's Koua Sudan area.

Two suicide bombers then blew themselves up nearby as people were being rescued.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki was quoted as saying the attacks were prompted by "terror groups" who sought to "raise their morale after a string of defeats" by the army.

"Bodies were still being pulled from the wreckage," a witness told state news channel Ikhbariyah.

The explosions occurred as representatives of Syria’s government and its divided opposition began convening in Geneva for the first UN-mediated peace talks in two years.

The UN has said the aim would be six months of talks, first seeking a ceasefire and later working toward a political settlement to a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, driven more than 10 million from their homes and drawn in global powers.

But the process looked highly uncertain on Sunday, with the main opposition group threatening to walk away before planned peace talks even begin in earnest.

The Sayeda Zeinab shrine area witnessed heavy clashes in the first few years of the conflict, which began in 2011, but has since been secured by the Syrian army and Shia militias led by Hezbollah, which has set up protective roadblocks around it.

The shrine houses the grave of the daughter of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the cousin of the prophet Muhammad whom Shia Muslims consider the rightful successor to the prophet. The dispute over the succession led to the major Sunni-Shia schism in Islam.