Syria's Sayyida Zeinab Shia shrine left unharmed, Iraqi fighters say

The Sayyida Zeinab Shia shrine in south Damascus has been left untouched by Syrian rebels, who have not confronted Iraqi paramilitary groups, Iraqi fighters told Middle East Eye.

Iraqi Shia paramilitaries said they were not attacked by rebel forces in Syria and have been left to return to Iraq unhindered.

The rebels, who overran Damascus on Saturday and toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, have also avoided any aggression around Sayyida Zeinab, an important religious site that Shia fighters from Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Iran have sought to protect during Syria’s civil war.

“What happened is unbelievable. They [the rebels] were passing by us and they didn’t even stop,” a commander in an Iraqi armed faction in Syria told MEE.

The rebel commanders “told us that no one would attack us or harm us as long as we were not armed”, he said, “and they also pledged not to attack the holy shrines, the Shia and the rest of the minorities”.

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