At Least 68 Dead in Multiple Blasts near Damascus Shiite Shrine

At least 68 people were killed Sunday in a series of attacks, including a car bombing, near a Shiite shrine south of Syria's capital, state television and a monitor said.

The Islamic State jihadist group said two of its suicide bombers carried out the attack.

State television said a car bombing and two suicide attacks hit the area, killing 30 and wounding dozens in a preliminary toll, whereas the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a death toll of 68 in four attacks.

An AFP reporter said the blasts struck about 400 meters from the shrine which contains the grave of a granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed and is revered by Shiites.

At least 60 shops were damaged and cars reduced to mangled metal in the area.

"The attacks came as pupils were leaving school, and several of them were killed," the state broadcaster reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "there was a car bomb and two suicide bombers who blew themselves up. We don't know the cause of the fourth explosion."

At the end of January, the Islamic State group said it was behind bombings near the shrine that killed 71 people, among them five children.