44 killed in twin bombing in Damascus Old City

Twin bombs killed 44 people and wounded more than 40 in the Old City of Damascus on Saturday in a rare attack in the Syrian capital, a monitoring group said.

A roadside bomb detonated as a bus passed and a suicide bomber blew himself up in the Bab al-Saghir area, which houses several Shiite mausoleums that draw pilgrims from around the world, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The SANA state news agency reported that "two bombs planted by terrorists exploded near the Bab al-Saghir cemetery in Bab Musalla, causing dead and wounded."