The Syrian government's chief negotiator says an explosion south of the capital had struck a hospital, killing some patients evacuated last week from two rebel-besieged towns in the northwestern province of Idlib.
Bashar Ja'afari told reporters on arrival for talks with UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura: "The explosion that the terrorists carried out in the area of Sayeda Zeinab today centred on a hospital that treated injured from Foua and Kefraya brought."
"...It took the lives of tens of innocents. So while we had a diplomatic dialogue here, they [the opposition] decided to withdraw [from the talks], you can see that these people are nothing but terrorists."
"We will begin this meeting with this topic," he said.
He appeared to be referring to a car bomb on Monday (local time) which a monitoring group said had killed at least six people.
Multiple explosions in February killed scores of people in the Sayeda Zeinab area, home to Syria's holiest Shi'ite Muslim shrine, in one of the bloodiest attacks there in Syria's five-year conflict.
A suicide attack there less than a month earlier claimed by ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim group Islamic State killed 70 people.
Reuters
