Syria tire explosion kills 3, terrorism ruled out

A tire from a bus of Iranian pilgrims exploded with force near a Shiite shrine in Damascus on Thursday, killing three people, with Syria's interior minister dismissing reports of a terrorist attack.

"It is not a terrorist act at all," Interior Minister Saeed Sammur told journalists at the scene. "It happened while one of the empty bus' tires was being repaired. An explosion took place as result of the excessive pressure.

"Two workers who were repairing the tire and the bus driver, who was standing near them, were killed in the explosion."

The minister said that, aside from the fatalities, there were no other casualties.

Mohammed Issa, director of the Khomeini Hospital in Sayyeda Zeinab, said one of the dead was a 12-year-old boy who worked at the petrol station where the tire was being repaired.

Regional television channels had variously reported that the blast was caused by a bomb or an exploding gas cylinder packed in with the luggage of the pilgrims and had caused dozens of casualties.

Speculation centered on a possible terrorist attack, as the incident coincided with a visit to Damascus by Saeed Jalili, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator and secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Bomb attacks are rare in Syria, a country known for its iron-fisted security.

The explosion happened near a Shiite shrine in the Sayyeda Zeinab district that was the destination of the pilgrims. In September 2008, a car bomb there killed 17 people and wounded 14 in the deadliest such attack in more than a decade.

It is not a terrorist act at all

Syrian Interior Minister Saeed Sammur