The Syrian secret service says it has thwarted a planned attack by the Islamic State on a Shiite shrine

DAMASCUS — Intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government have foiled a plan by the Islamic State group to detonate a bomb on a Shiite shrine in the Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, state media reported Saturday.

The state news agency SANA, citing an unnamed General Intelligence Service official, reported that members of the IS cell that planned the attack had been arrested. It quoted the official as saying that the intelligence service was “using all its capabilities to withstand any attempts to target the Syrian people in all their facets.”

Sayyida Zeinab has been the site of attacks on Shiite pilgrims in the past by IS, which promotes an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and views Shiites as infidels.

In 2023, a motorcycle rigged with explosives exploded in Sayyida Zeinab, killing at least six people and injuring dozens a day before the Shiite holiday of Ashoura.

The announcement that the attack had been foiled appeared to be another attempt by the country’s new leadership to reassure religious minorities, including those seen as supporters of the previous government of Bashar al-Assad.

Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, was allied with Iran and the Shiite Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, as well as Iranian-backed Iraqi militias.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, the former insurgent group that led the lightning offensive that toppled Assad last month and is now the de facto ruling party in the country, is a Sunni Islamist group that once had ties to al-Qaeda.

The group later split from al-Qaeda, and HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has preached religious coexistence since coming to power in Damascus.

Also on Saturday, Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati arrived in Damascus to meet with al-Sharaa.

Relations between the two countries have been strained under Assad, with Lebanon’s political factions deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Assad’s rule.