By Marwan Makdesi
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - An explosion tore apart a bus thought to be carrying Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least six people, a Reuters witness and local media said.
A social media account linked to al Qaeda's Nusra Front said the hardline Sunni group was behind what it called the suicide attack on the bus near a market place in the capital.
The vehicle had Lebanese number plates and Syrian security services had cordoned off the area close to Hamidiyeh market, the Reuters witness said. Rescue workers sifted through the rubble and cleared away pools of blood from the ground.
Syria's state news agency SANA said the "terrorist explosion" had killed four and wounded 19. Earlier on Sunday Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi told parliament that Syria aimed to "flush out all terrorists" in 2015.
The bus had been carrying pilgrims close to the Sayyida Ruqayya shrine, a television channel run by Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah said.
Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian government forces battling an insurgency which has drawn in countries across the Middle East and stoked sectarian tensions.
Syria's Ikhbariya television showed footage of men and a woman in hospital with wounds. It also showed footage of the blackened, wrecked bus and security services picking through the damage.
The Nusra Front Twitter feed said one of the group's members blew himself up inside a bus at the market. It posted a photo of a man it said was the bomber and another of the wrecked vehicle. Reuters could not immediately verify the images.
Nusra Front has been battling the Syrian military as well as other insurgent groups in Syria. While fighting has raged on the outskirts of Damascus, attacks in the centre are relatively rare.
In a speech to parliament broadcast on state television, Prime Minister Halqi said Syria would "back any initiatives to fight global terrorism".
Hours before the attack, he said Syria would not allow its enemies "to destroy the land of religions and cradle of civilisations".
Syria has repeatedly said it wants to coordinate with other countries to fight armed groups in its country. It describes all anti-government forces in Syria as terrorists, unlike Western countries and their Arab allies who distinguish between the hardline jihadists and more mainstream rebel fighters.
Syria's uprising started in 2011 with anti-government protests and has descended into a civil war pitting a range of armed groups against the military. Jihadist groups such as Islamic State and al Qaeda's Nusra Front have gained ground.
(Reporting by Marwan Makdesi in Damascus and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Writing by Sylvia Westall in Beirut,; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Stephen Powell)
