Lethal explosion throughout Friday prayers inside Syrian mosque

[ad_1] An explosion has killed at the least eight folks and injured 18 others throughout Friday prayers inside a mosque within the Syrian metropolis of Homs, the well being ministry has mentioned.

Footage from Syria's state-run information company, Sana, present the within of the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque with black, scorched partitions, smashed home windows and blood on the carpet.

Officers imagine that an explosive was detonated contained in the constructing, Sana stories, citing a safety supply. Whereas authorities are nonetheless trying to find the perpetrators, jihadist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah has claimed accountability.

The mosque is within the Wadi al-Dhahab neighbourhood, the place most individuals are a part of the Alawite ethnoreligious group.

Syria's International Ministry condemned the "terrorist crime", writing in an announcement on X that the "cowardly act is a blatant assault on human and ethical values" designed to "undermine the safety and stability" of the nation.

Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, a Sunni extremist group, has mentioned it carried out the assault in collaboration with one other unidentified group, utilizing explosives planted on the web site.

The group's imprecise origins and opaque affiliations, which got here to prominence in June when it claimed accountability for a lethal church bombing in Damascus, have raised questions on its true hyperlinks and authenticity.

Some observers have speculated that it could possibly be a entrance for Islamic State group (IS) given the similarity of their messaging and kind of targets.

The newest declare follows a months-long lull in Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah's claimed assaults, which have largely taken the type of alleged focused killings of minorities and what the group describes as "remnants" of the previous Syrian authorities of Bashar al-Assad.

The blast comes a yr after Syrian insurgent forces overthrew Assad, who's Alawite. The sect is an offshoot of Shia Islam whose members make up one of many nation's largest non secular minorities.

Since then, Syria has seen a number of waves of sectarian violence, with Alawites fearing reprisals and being topic to crackdowns. Assad fled to Russia, an ally of his regime, the place he and his household have been given asylum.

In March, safety forces have been accused of killing dozens of Alawites within the coastal province of Latakia, conflict monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.