Update: 12 killed in car bomb attack at Syria military checkpoint

At least 12 people were killed and 35 others wounded, 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 passed through two military checkpoints and when he reached the third at the entrance of the town of Diyabiyah south of the Shiite district of Sayyidah Zaynab, the soldiers demanded to thoroughly search the vehicle and that's when the driver set it off, said the source on a condition of anonymity.

The car was a white double cabin pick-up truck, laden with at least 100 kilograms of explosives, added the source.

If the vehicle had succeeded to pass through the third checkpoint unchecked properly, it would have reached a densely-populated areas and it would have caused a massacre.

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