DAMASCUS: A Shia cleric who served at Syria’s revered Sayyida Zeinab shrine in Damascus’s southern suburbs was killed in a bomb blast on Friday, state media reported.

“Farhan Hassan al Mansour was killed in a bomb blast... in the Sayyida Zeinab area,” state television reported.

“Security agencies have begun investigations at the scene” and launched a search for the perpetrators, it added.

The Shia community’s highest spiritual authority in Syria said in a statement on Facebook that Mansour was killed when “his car was targeted with an explosive device”.

The television network further said the blast came after Mansour left the shrine and called the incident an “assassination”, without saying who was responsible.

Shias are mainly concentrated around Damascus as well as in Homs, Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

Religious minorities have expressed increased safety concerns in Syria since hardliners took power in Dec 2024 after overthrowing longtime ruler Bashar al Assad, who was backed by Iran.

The Shia community quickly moved to support the new authorities and senior figures last year met Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa, who has pledged to protect minorities in the multi-sectarian, multi-ethnic country.

But last year also saw killings among Syria’s Alawites in the community’s coastal heartland, bloodshed involving the Druze minority in the country’s south, and a suicide bombing at an Orthodox church in Damascus.

In December, eight people were killed in a bomb blast at a mosque in an Alawite area of the central city of Homs, sparking mass protests by the Alawite community.

Last July, influential Shia cleric Sheikh Rassul Shahud was killed in central Syria.

In February last year, authorities said they had arrested a militant accused of planning a foiled attack targeting the Sayyida Zeinab shrine, Syria’s most visited pilgrimage site.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2026