DAMASCUS (AFP) - A car bomb exploded near a Shia shrine in southern Damascus on Saturday, killing 17 people and wounding 14 others in one of the deadliest attacks to hit Syria in a dozen years, state media said. The car packed with 200 kilos of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel Majid told state television was "a terrorist act." All the casualties were civilians, he said. "A counter-terrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators... We can't point the finger at any party." The rare attack in a country known for its iron-fisted security came during the morning rush-hour in the teeming neighbourhood of Sayeda Zeinab, the state-run SANA news agency said, quoting a Syrian official. The district is popular among Shia pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq who pray at the tomb of Hazrat Zeinab, daughter of the Hazrat Ali (AS). More than two million people reportedly visit the shrine each year. Witnesses told state television the bomb could have claimed more victims if it had gone off a day later. "It felt like an earthquake. The force of the explosion threw me out of bed," said one man who lives nearby. "Thank God this was Saturday. The catastrophe would have been bigger if the attack had taken place on Sunday when schools were open." Another man said that the blast was heard some 10 kilometres away in the northern suburbs of Duma and Harasta. "May Allah break the hands of those who did this," said a boy. The attack was condemned by Syria's ally Russia as well as France, Jordan and Lebanon. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent a cable of condolences to his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad describing the attack as "a cruel and inhumane crime," the Kremlin website said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy condemned the "barbarian and blind" attack and expressed "solidarity with Syria in its fight against terrorism," his office said in a statement. Lebanon's Administrative Development Minister Ibrahim Shamseddin called it "a criminal and terrorist act" while Jordan's King Abdullah II also condemned the bombing.