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A car bomb exploded in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sept. 27, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others. The car bomb was reportedly packed with 440 pounds of explosives and was placed near the Sayida Zeinab shrine, an important shrine for Shiite Muslims. Thus far it is unclear whether any individual was specifically targeted in the blast.

Car bombs in Syria are extremely rare — the last one occurred in February when Hezbollah’s top commander Imad Mughniyah was killed. Stratfor has reason to believe that assassination was the result of a strategic decision by Damascus to pursue serious negotiations with Israel and prove its commitment to those talks by moving against Hezbollah.