Islamic State claims responsibility for bombings near Damascus Shi'ite shrine

AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for car and suicide bomb blasts that killed at least eight people and injured scores in a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus on Saturday, the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency said. The Sayeda Zeinab suburb contains Syria's holiest Shi'ite shrine and is a base for Shi'ite militant groups from Lebanon and Iraq who are on the side of President Bashar al-Assad in the country's five-year-old civil war. Amaq news agency said that in Saturday's attack, militants detonated an explosives-laden car in Sayeda Zeinab while two suicide bombers blew themselves up nearby. Syrian state media showed footage of wide-scale damage in a busy marketplace. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Writing by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)