Arsenal’s Chloe Kelly kisses the winner trophy after her team won the women’s Champions League final soccer match between Arsenal and FC Barcelona at the Jose Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, Saturday, May 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Julian Assange wears a shirt that reads ‘Stop Israel’ at the photo call for the film ‘The Six Billion Dollar Man’ at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)Traffic crosses a bridge at Woodhead Reservoir in Derbyshire as England experiences a significant drought, with reservoir levels at 84% of capacity, lower than the 90% seen in 2022, Woodhead, England, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Traffic crosses a bridge at Woodhead Reservoir in Derbyshire as England experiences a significant drought, with reservoir levels at 84% of capacity, lower than the 90% seen in 2022, Woodhead, England, Monday, May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)Sri Wahyuni, also known as Ayu, performs in the “wall of death”, locally known as “tong setan” or satan’s barrel, at a fairground in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)Sri Wahyuni, also known as Ayu, performs in the “wall of death”, locally known as “tong setan” or satan’s barrel, at a fairground in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara)
RJ Andrews paddles boards past a massive ship in the waters off of Crane Cove Park in San Francisco, California Tuesday, May 20, 2025.(Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)RJ Andrews paddles boards past a massive ship in the waters off of Crane Cove Park in San Francisco, California Tuesday, May 20, 2025.(Jessica Christian/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Relatives of Naval Academy Cadet América Yamilet Sánchez, who died aboard a Mexican Navy sailing ship that collided with the Brooklyn Bridge, embrace next to her coffin, in Xalapa, Mexico, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Victoria Razo)
Relatives of Naval Academy Cadet América Yamilet Sánchez, who died aboard a Mexican Navy sailing ship that collided with the Brooklyn Bridge, embrace next to her coffin, in Xalapa, Mexico, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Victoria Razo)In January, state media
that intelligence officials inthwarted a plan by the Islamic State group to set off a bomb at the shrine. The announcement appeared to be an attempt by Syria’s new leaders to reassure religious minorities, including those seen as having supported Assad’s former government.
Al-Khatib, who moved his family from Aleppo province to the Sayyida Zeinab area shortly before Assad’s fall, said Assad had branded himself as a protector of minorities. “When killings, mobilization ... and sectarian polarization began,” the narrative “of the regime and its allies was that ‘you, as a Shiite, you as a minority member, will be killed if I fall.’”The involvement of Sunni jihadis and some hardline foreign Shiite fighters fanned sectarian flames, he said.