1st LD: 8 killed as car bomb hits military checkpoint south of Damascus

At least eight people were killed and four cars completely burned, when a car bomb tore through a military checkpoint near a predominantly-Shiite district south of the capital Damascus on Monday, a military source told Xinhua.

The driver donated the car at the checkpoint south of the Shiite district of Sayyidah Zaynab, while the soldiers were scrutinizing it.

Sayyidah Zaynab has suffered deadly bombings in recent months, in which tens of people were killed.

It wasn't immediately clear which party was behind the bombings, but previous ones were claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Sayyidah Zaynab district has a Shiite shrine containing the tomb of Zaynab, Islam's Prophet Muhammad's granddaughter.

The Sayyidah Zaynab tomb became a center of religious studies of the adherents of the Shiite sect of Islam and a destination of mass pilgrimage by Shiite Muslims from across the Muslim world.

Since mid-summer 2012, the district has been under frequent attacks and shelling by ultra-radical rebels who aim to attack the Shiite people due to their supportive stance on the Syrian government and their religious background about the Shiite-Sunni conflict.

As the district holds religious significance to the Shiite people, Hezbollah has sent fighters to protect the shrine and manned checkpoints sounding it amid reports that the targeted checkpoint on Monday belongs to Hezbollah. Endit