Witnesses: Bomb targeting Iran pilgrims kills six in Syria

         A blast ripped through a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims near a major Shi'ite religious shrine in Damascus on Thursday killed six people, witnesses said. The blast took place as Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, was visiting Damascus for meetings with Syrian officials. "Body parts are still scattered around the bus," one of the witnesses told Reuters. Several more people were wounded in the explosion in the Sayyeda Zainab area in Damascus. The witnesses said the rear part of the bus was ripped opened. Buildings around the scene of the blast sustained damage and glass from broken windows littered the street. Lebanon's al-Manar television, mouthpiece of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, said at least one of the dead was an Iranian national. One doctor in a nearby hospital said the hospital had an undisclosed number of people being treated from wounds. Syria has been hit by bomb attacks in recent years. A car bomb attack on a security complex near Damascus airport killed 17 people in September 2008. That attack was blamed on Lebanon-based Islamist militant group with links to al-Qaida. Syrian security forces deployed in the area, a popular destination for Shi'ites from Iran and Lebanon, and were investigating the blast. There was no official word on the explosion from the authorities. Bomb attacks, along with a series of attacks against targets in Syria in the last three years, including U.S. and Israeli raids, has shaken the image of stability in a country that has recently emerged from international isolation. (12,00)