The shrine of Sayyida Zeinab in Damascus has been fighting against ISIL and other armed groups in Syria.
Syrian government officials have prevented ISIL (ISIS) terrorists from bombing Shia shrines in the Damascus suburbs, state news agency SANA said.
Intelligence and security forces “succeeded in thwarting ISIL's attempt to detonate a bomb inside shrine of Sayyida Zeinab”a source within the Syrian intelligence agency told SANA on Saturday, adding that several people have been arrested.
“The General Intelligence Directorate is using all its resources to combat all efforts against the Syrian people in different ways,” the official told SANA.
The interior ministry released photos of four men alleged to be members of the ISIL group who were arrested in villages outside the capital.
It also published pictures of the weapons allegedly seized from the suspects, including mobile phones, two guns, three explosive devices and several hand grenades.
The photos show the documents of two Lebanese citizens and a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon.
“The temple they are trying to target is south of Damascus,” Al Jazeera's Hamza Mohamed said, from Damascus.
“It is an important religious site for Shia Muslims. They believe that the grandson of Prophet Muhammad was buried (there).
Mohamed added that this is not the first time that this holy place has been disturbed.
“In 2008, there was a car bomb … (in which) 17 people were killed,” he said.
ISIL also targeted the Damascus shrine, Syria's most visited Shia shrine, claiming responsibility for a February 2016 double suicide attack near a mausoleum that killed 134 people.
The group also reported three explosions near the shrine a few weeks earlier that killed at least 70 people.
A bomb blast in July 2023 killed at least six people near the mausoleum.
Shia shrines have been frequently attacked by Sunni groups such as ISIL, in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
Iran-backed guards were used at the gates of the Sayyida Zeinab mausoleum, but they fled last month, shortly before Sunni-led rebels stormed the Syrian city and toppled President Bashar al-Assad.
Iranian fighters have been al-Assad's biggest supporters since the war began in 2011.