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ISIS claims responsibility for deadly blasts in Damascus suburb

Story highlights
  • Terror group claims responsibility, according to a statement circulating online
  • Three explosions kill at least 45, injure 100 others near Damascus, report says
  • Attack started with a blast at a bus terminal, followed by two suicide bombings

(CNN) ISIS claimed responsibility for a triple bombing Sunday that killed at least 45 people and injured more than 100 others in a Damascus suburb, according to a statement circulating online from supporters of the terrorist group.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi reacted to the carnage on the southern outskirts of Damascus.

"The aim of this cowardly and desperate terrorist attack is to raise the morale of the defeated terrorist groups following the great victories that our brave army has accomplished in several areas," the state-run SANA news agency reported that Halqi said.

"Terrorists" detonated a car bomb at a bus terminal, followed shortly by two suicide bombings that targeted onlookers and medics at the scene of the initial attack, an Interior Ministry official told SANA.

The blasts injured dozens in Sayeda Zeynab, according to the news agency. The suburb is named after an important Shiite mosque.

The attack happened while representatives from President Bashar al-Assad's regime and the main Syrian opposition are in Geneva, Switzerland, for talks aimed at ending the country's civil war.

CNN's Yousuf Basil and Schams Elwazer contributed to this report.
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