A bomb placed on a bus ferrying Lebanese pilgrims around Shi'ite holy sites in Damascus has exploded, killing at least six people, according to Syrian activists and Lebanese media.
The attack wounded at least another 20 people as it shattered the vehicle near the Damascus citadel and the centuries-old Hamidiyeh bazaar, Syrian state-run media reported.
The Britain-based opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blast killed seven people, while state-run media and al-Manar, the television channel run by the militant Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, gave a toll of six dead.
Footage broadcast on al-Manar showed a woman, seemingly in shock, lying on a hospital bed, her white shirt crimson with blood.
A medic picked shrapnel or glass out of a man's bloodied back.
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Al-Manar said the pilgrims were travelling from the shrine of Sayidna Ruqqaya in central Damascus to the southern shrine of Sayidna Zeinab when the bomb detonated.
The bus belonged to a Lebanese Shi'ite pilgrim tour company and had left Beirut early on Sunday morning, company official Fadi Khair el-Deen told al-Manar.
Another bomb was found near the bus and was dismantled by security forces, Syrian state-run media reported.
It was not immediately clear when, or how, the bomb was placed on the bus.
Syrian militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front, claimed responsibility for the blast and accused the bus passengers of being Hezbollah fighters.
Jabhat al-Nusra also claimed it was a suicide bombing, while Syrian state media and al-Manar both said the blast was caused by a bomb placed on the bus.
