Ghaith Alsayed and Sally Abou Aljoud
Idlib, Syria: A bombing at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs during Friday prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, authorities said, as long-standing sectarian, ethnic and political fault lines continue to destabilise the country, even as large-scale fighting has subsided.
Images released by Syria’s state-run Arab News Agency (SANA) showed blood on the mosque’s carpets, holes in the walls, shattered windows and fire damage. The Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque is in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, in an area of the Wadi al-Dhahab neighbourhood dominated by the Alawite minority.
SANA, citing a security source, said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque. Authorities were searching for the perpetrators, who have not yet been identified, and a security cordon was placed around the building, Syria’s Interior Ministry said.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel. The group previously claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in June, when a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, outside Damascus, which killed 25 worshippers.
The Syrian government blamed Friday’s church attack on a cell of the Islamic State group, and said IS had also planned to target a Shiite Muslim shrine. IS did not claim responsibility for the attack. The group follows an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and considers Shiites to be infidels.
Syria recently joined the global coalition against IS and has launched a crackdown on IS cells, particularly after an attack on American forces this month that killed two service members and a civilian translator.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemns the deadly terrorist attack” and stressed that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The UN chief also noted Syria’s commitment to combat terrorism and hold perpetrators accountable.
Syria has experienced several waves of sectarian clashes since the fall of president Bashar Assad last year. Assad, himself an Alawite, fled the country to Russia. Members of his sect have been subjected to crackdowns.
In March, an ambush carried out by Assad’s supporters against security forces triggered days of violence that left hundreds of people dead, most of them Alawites.
The Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora described the attack as “a continuation of the organised extremist terrorism specifically targeting the Alawite community, and increasingly other Syrian groups as well”.
The council held the Syrian government “fully and directly responsible for these crimes”, and said “these criminal acts will not go unanswered”.
Local officials condemned Friday’s attack, saying it came “within the context of repeated desperate attempts to undermine security and stability and sow chaos among the Syrian people”.
“Syria reiterates its firm stance in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
The Syrian information minister said in a post on X: “Remnants of the former regime, IS militants and collaborators have converged on a single goal: obstructing the path of the new state by undermining stability, threatening civil peace, and eroding the shared coexistence and common destiny of Syrians throughout history.”
The mosque’s deputy imam told Syrian state television that worshippers were praying when they “heard a loud explosion that knocked us to the ground. Fire broke out in one corner of the mosque. Those of us who were not wounded rushed to help get the injured out. Within minutes, general security forces and the Red Crescent arrived.
“The explosion was huge. It shattered the mosque’s windows and caused a fire that burned copies of the holy Koran.”
Neighbouring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon, also condemned the attack.
The French government said it condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms”.
AP
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