Al-Qaida-linked group claims deadly attack

Associated Press

BEIRUT

An al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility Sunday for twin blasts near holy shrines frequented by Shiites in the Syrian capital Damascus that killed at least 40 people as a suspected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition killed at least 17 in northern Syria, activists said.

The Levant Liberation Committee said in a statement that the attack was carried out by two of its suicide attackers, claiming that they targeted pro-Iranian and pro-government militiamen. It identified the suicide attackers as Abu Omar and Abu Aisha.

The Syrian government maintains that the attacks killed 40 people. However the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights increased its estimated death toll Sunday to 74. Conflicting casualty estimates are common in the aftermath of violence in Syria.

The attacks in Damascus show that Syrian militant groups can still strike deep inside the capital where security is tight, with scores of checkpoints that search cars and ask people for identity cards.

The claim of responsibility comes at a time when al-Qaida’s branch in Syria known as the Fatah al-Sham Front is trying to market itself as the only effective force against Assad and the main defender of the country’s majority Sunnis.

Fatah al-Sham as well as the Islamic State group have been excluded from a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey that went into effect on Dec. 30.