Blasts Near Shiite Sanctuary South Of Damascus Kill At Least 30

UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. EST — Bomb blasts in the Syrian cities of Homs and Damascus have left at least 140 people dead, monitors and state media say, the BBC reported. In the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, four blasts killed at least 83 people, state media said. In Homs, 57 people were killed in a double car bombing, a monitoring group reported. The Islamic State group claimed reponsibility for the attacks in both cities.

UPDATE: 12:40 p.m. EST — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in Damascus Sunday that killed at least 62 people, British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Reuters reported 180 more were injured.

Original story:

Four blasts struck near a Shiite sanctuary south of the Syrian capital of Damascus Sunday, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The attacks near the Sayyida Zeinab shrine left at least 30 people dead and wounded others, according to state television.

The blasts came hours after car bomb explosions killed 46 people in the city of Homs, reported the Observatory. The group said those attacks were among the largest ever to hit a government-controlled area in the city in the nation’s ongoing civil war, Reuters reported.