Gunmen assassinate the preacher of the shrine of Sayyida Zainab , south of Damascus
On Friday afternoon, May 1, unknown gunmen assassinated the preacher of the shrine of Sayyida Zainab, Sheikh Farhan Hassan Al-Mansour, in the city of Sayyida Zainab, south of Damascus.
Private sources told "Syrian News" that the assassination was carried out through an explosive device planted in a car before the gunmen shot "Al-Mansour" immediately after the explosion, which led to his severe injuries, where he was transferred to "Zahid" Hospital and died of his injuries.
The sources added that the assassination took place in the Fatimiya area near what is known as the "Arch of Sayyida Zainab" after al-Mansour left Friday prayers at the shrine of Sayyida Zainab.
The Islamic Scholarly Council for the Followers of the Ahl al-Bayt school in Syria mourned Sheikh al-Mansour, who is the Friday prayer leader at the shrine of Sayyida Zainab, after his car was targeted with an explosive device in the Sayyida Zainab area, according to the commission.
For his part, Sheikh Adham al-Khatib, vice president of the Islamic Scholarly Council for the Followers of the Ahl al-Bayt school in Syria, mourned Sheikh al-Mansour on his Facebook page.
In addition, SANA quoted an unnamed source in the Ministry of Interior as saying that Al-Mansour was killed by a bomb explosion this afternoon and that investigations are continuing to find out the circumstances of the incident, explaining that Sheikh Mansour died of his injuries as a result of the explosion, after he was transferred to a hospital in the Sayyida Zainab area.
The source added that investigations are underway to determine whether the explosion was caused by an intentional targeting operation or not, stressing that the competent authorities are "working to collect evidence to uncover the circumstances of the explosion."
It is noteworthy that Sheikh Farhan Mansour is one of the prominent religious figures in the Sayyida Zainab area, and he hails from the village of Al-Kabar in the countryside of Deir Ezzor.
Foiling an earlier bombing attempt
The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced, in an official statement on January 11, 2025, that the security services were able to thwart a terrorist plot of ISIS that was targeting the shrine of Sayyida Zainab in the Damascus countryside, stressing that the operation came as a result of careful intelligence follow-up carried out by the General Intelligence Service in cooperation with the Public Security Directorate in the Damascus countryside, which allowed the cell to be exposed before the attack was launched.
The statement said security forces arrested all those involved in this "criminal act" and published photos of four people identified as members of the cell. They also confiscated explosive devices and explosive materials ready for use, as well as automatic weapons, hand grenades, phones and digital documents linked to the plot.
Initial investigations revealed that the cell was planning to carry out suicide bombings inside the shrine, while trying to exploit any gathering of civilians or an official presence to increase the amount of human losses, in an attempt to cause a wide security and media shock.