ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A prominent Shiite preacher has died from injuries sustained in a grenade attack near the symbolic Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Damascus, Syrian state media reported on Friday.
Imam Farhan Hassan al-Mansour was “killed in a bomb blast… in the Sayyida Zaynab area,” state television said.
Syria’s interior ministry condemned the killing, saying it represented a "dangerous escalation within a pattern targeting religious and social symbols in an attempt to provoke strife and undermine societal stability."
The ministry vowed the crime “will not go unpunished,” adding that investigations are underway to identify those responsible.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a hand grenade was thrown into Mansour’s car near the Safir al-Zahra hotel after he left the shrine on Friday. The blast left him critically injured before he was transferred to hospital. Security forces later imposed a cordon around the site.
State media, citing security sources, confirmed the grenade attack but did not initially report casualties.
Since the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024, Syria has seen rising sectarian violence, including massacres of Alawites and clashes in Druze-majority areas. Religious sites have also been targeted, including the bombing of Mar Elias Church in Damascus in June.
Earlier that month, security forces said they had dismantled an Islamic State (ISIS) cell responsible for the church attack, adding the group had been planning a similar strike on the Sayyida Zaynab shrine.
Located south of Damascus, the shrine is among the most important Shiite holy sites and is believed to house the tomb of Zaynab, granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad and daughter of Imam Ali.
Pro-Iran armed groups under the former regime of Bashar al-Assad heavily guarded the site. After Sunni Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led a rebel coalition that overthrew Assad and formed a new government, visitor numbers to the shrine declined sharply.
Following the regime’s collapse, Jamal Awad, head of the shrine, told Rudaw that there was no immediate threat to the site and that coordination with the new authorities was ongoing to ensure its security amid continued unrest.
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