The new Syrian government announced on Saturday that it had foiled an attack by the Islamic State group (IS) targeting the Sayyida Zeinab Shia shrine in the south of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

A Syrian intelligence source, quoted by the official Sana news agency, said that security forces “managed to foil an attempt by IS to carry out a bomb attack inside the mausoleum of Sayyida Zeinab”.

The source added that several people had been arrested.