Bomb Targeting Bus Kills Lebanese Pilgrims Visiting Shiite Shrine in Damascus

A bomb blast tore apart a bus carrying Lebanese Shiite Muslim pilgrims to shrines in Damascus, Syria, killing at least six and wounding 27, the New York Times reports.

Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian al-Qaida affiliate, claimed responsibility for what it described as a suicide attack on the bus in a tightly secured area just outside the Syrian capital.

Syrian state news agency SANA claimed the “terrorist bombing” involved two bombs planted on the bus, but authorities had defused one of the bombs.

Speculation was that the attacks were targeting Hezbollah fighters.

“Hezbollah condemns the bombing that infidel criminals carried out in Damascus,” said a headline on al-Manar, which is run by Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been a longtime ally of President Bashar al-Assad, benefitting strategically and tactically from its Syrian alliance. It has sent thousands of its fighters over to Syria in support of the regime.

The attacks came two weeks after a suspected Israeli airstrike on a convoy in the Syrian portion of the Golan Heights killed several Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general, and four days after Hezbollah retaliated by killing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack from Lebanon.

“The bus’s next destination was to have been the Sayeda Zeinab shrine outside Damascus, particularly revered by Shiites. Protecting that shrine was one of Hezbollah’s early justifications for its intervention in Syria, and the group has used it as a rallying point to recruit fighters,” the New York Times writes.

Western-Backed Rebels Join Alliance of Mostly Islamist Insurgent Factions in Aleppo

The Western-backed Hazzm movement in northern Syria that is under pressure from al-Qaida joined the Levant Front-Jabhat al-Shamiyya, an alliance of mostly Islamist insurgent factions in the northern province of Aleppo, Reuters reports.

“Hazzm is under pressure because before they refused to join Jabhat al-Shamiyya and now they accept this,” said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

One of the few remaining non-jihadist opposition groups to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria, Hazzm has faced attack from Jabhat al-Nusra in Alleppo and Idlib provinces.

“The alliance includes Islamic Front, an Islamist coalition which includes Saudi-backed combatants and other factions,” according to Reuters.

“We urge our brothers in all factions to resolve their differences with the (Hazzm) movement via the Jabhat al-Shamiyya leadership and its judicial office by appealing to sharia law of God,” read a statement from the alliance.

The decision comes following reports last week that Jabhat al-Nusra attacked and seized positions from the Hazm Movement west of Aleppo.

Hazzm has struggled to retain ground from better equipped and financed jihadist groups. According to the group, it has small amounts of military aid from foreign states opposed to Assad, including U.S.-made anti-tank missiles.

“While U.S.-led airstrikes have focused on pushing back ISIS in eastern and northern Syria, the Nusra Front has deepened its influence in the northwest,” Reuters writes.

Islamic State Fighters Admit Defeat in Syrian Town of Kobani

The Islamic State has acknowledged for the first time that its fighters had been ousted from the Syrian town of Kobani and vowed to repeat attacks on the town, AP reports.

“In a video released by the pro-IS Aamaq News Agency late Friday, two fighters said the airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition were the main reason why IS fighters were forced to withdraw from Kobani,” according to the wire. The YPG said on Monday that Kobani had been completely liberated from the Islamic State.

Kobani has been the focus of intense U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State since September, when the group seized control over nearly half of Kobani and forced nearly 200,000 to flee to neighboring Turkey. The failure to capture and hold the town was a significant block to the extremists.

The battle for Kobani has led to massive destruction inside the border town, destroying nearly 50 percent of it, according to deputy foreign minister for the Kobani regional government Idris Nassan.

Kurdish officials are praising the retaking of Kobani as an important step towards preventing the Islamic State, which now controls nearly one-third of Syria and Iraq, from furthering its territorial gains.

“Kobani Canton is a representative of the resistance against terrorism in the world,” said Anwar Muslim, a senior Syrian Kurdish official in Kobani. “We hope that the world will support us to come through our struggle against IS.” In a newly released video, two Islamic State fighters blamed their defeat on the coalition air campaign.

“A while ago we retreated a bit from Ayn al-Islam because of the bombardment and the killing of some brothers,” said one.

Last week, Kurdish forces battled Islamic State fighters outside Kobani, in a counterattack to take some of the surrounding villages around Kobani from the group.

Recommended Reads:

• Daily Star: Next Round of Syria Talks in Moscow in a Month
• Reuters: Syria Aims to ‘Flush Out All Terrorists’ by 2015: PM
• Guardian: U.S.-Led Task Force Launches 34 Airstrikes Against ISIS in Iraq and Syria
• BBC: Japan Outraged at IS ‘Beheading’ of Hostage Kenji Goto
• Washington Post: I Interviewed Bashar al-Assad About Syria’s Civil War. He’s Still Too Delusional to End it
• Daily Star: Turkey Airport Police Hunt Syria-Bound Jihadis
• Reuters: Palestinians in Syria Cut Off From Aid Once More

Photo Courtesy of AP Images