At least eight people were killed Friday in an explosion at a mosque in the central Syrian city of Homs, according to the Syrian Interior Ministry, which described it as a terrorist attack.
Syrian authorities did not identify a perpetrator in the blast, which occurred during Friday prayers at the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib mosque in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood of Homs, where most residents belong to the Alawite religious minority, a Muslim sect that has been targeted in the past by Sunni Muslim extremists.
A Telegram account purporting to belong to a little-known group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah posted a statement claiming responsibility, saying the group, in cooperation with “the mujahideen” of another unnamed group, had detonated explosives inside the mosque. The claim could not immediately be verified.
At least 21 people were injured in the explosion, according to the Interior Ministry. Witnesses said a man carrying a suitcase entered the mosque around 11 a.m. local time, and left more than an hour later, before the explosion, Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba said in a TV interview, adding that the victims were from various sects.
Photographs of the mosque showed scorched floors and walls as well as what appeared to be holes from shrapnel on internal columns.
Since rebels toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad last year after more than 13 years of civil war, Syria has struggled with the persistence of sectarian violence as well as attacks by Sunni extremists, including the Islamic State militant group, that have targeted minorities. Government security forces, which absorbed hard-line Islamist former rebel factions, have also been implicated in killings and other atrocities.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry in a statement called Friday’s bombing a “cowardly criminal act” and said it aimed to “sow chaos among the Syrian people.”
Violence in March, triggered by Assad loyalist attacks on government forces, killed at least 1,400 people in Syria’s coastal region, the vast majority of them Alawites killed by government security forces or gunmen aligned with them.
In June, Syrian authorities blamed the Islamic State for the bombing of a church outside Damascus that killed 25 people. Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah also claimed responsibility for that attack.
Earlier this month, officials said the Islamic State group was responsible for an attack that killed two U.S. soldiers and an civilian interpreter in the Syrian city of Palmyra, during a joint patrol with Syrian security forces. After that assault, by a lone gunman on Dec. 13, the Trump administration carried out dozens of airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Syria. At the same time, the Syrian government, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has carried out an escalating crackdown on the group.
Homs, a multidenominational city with large Alawite neighborhoods in the south, has grappled with violent episodes for most of the last year, including crackdowns by the security forces, killings, disappearances and sectarian harassment. Tarek Ali, a journalist who lives in the city, said residents in Wadi al-Dhahab told him the mosque targeted Friday had received repeated threats.
People in Homs “are living in shock for months now, and this was an additional shock,” he said.
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