ISIS plan to attack Syria's Sayyeda Zeinab shrine foiled by security forces
Western intelligence officials have warned of a resurgence of ISIS, without acknowledging their previous support for the extremist group
The General Intelligence Service of Syria's new interim government said on 11 January it managed to foil an attempt by ISIS to carry out an attack inside the Sayyida Zainab shrine in the southern Damascus suburbs.
A source in the General Intelligence Service told state media SANA that "the persons involved in this criminal attempt against the Syrian people have been arrested."
"The General Intelligence Service is putting all its capabilities to confront all attempts to attack the Syrian people in all their spectrums," the source added.
The shrine contains the grave of Zeinab, a venerated granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad, and is known for its large golden dome.
Syria's interim government is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Ahmed al-Sharaa, the HTS leader and de facto ruler of Syria, is a former deputy of deceased ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, revered by Shia Muslims worldwide, has been targeted by ISIS multiple times in the past while it was under the control of the previous Syrian government, led by Bashar al-Assad.
In June 2016, an ISIS suicide bomber attacked the shrine, killing at least 20 people and wounding 20 more, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a British-based monitoring group.
Two months before, in April 2016, an ISIS attack on the shrine killed at least seven and wounded dozens.
A string of ISIS bombings near the shrine in February 2016 killed 134 people, most of them civilians, according to the SOHR. In January 2016, another attack on the shrine claimed by ISIS killed 70 people.
To maintain security, members of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, guarded the site until they were withdrawn just before the fall of Assad's government in December 2024.
The US, Israel, Turkiye, and Arab States began supporting HTS, formerly known as the Nusra Front, in 2011 in an effort to topple Assad's government. In 2014, the US and its allies also backed ISIS as it conquered large swathes of eastern Syria and western Iraq, including the city of Mosul.
Recently, many western intelligence officials have warned of a resurgence of ISIS in Syria, without acknowledging their past and possibly ongoing support for the group.