An explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Syria\u2019s Homs on Friday, state media said.<\/p>\n
The attack during Friday prayers is the latest on the Alawite community, and the second blast in a place of worship since extremist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people in June.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Telegram, terrorist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said its fighters \u201cdetonated a number of explosive devices\u201d in the Imam Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in the central Syrian city.<\/p>\n
The group formed after the ouster last year of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, himself a member of the Alawite community, and had claimed responsibility for the June church bombing, though authorities blamed the militant Islamic State group.<\/p>\n
State news agency SANA reported an explosion in the mosque in Homs\u2019s Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood and gave a preliminary toll of at least eight dead and 18 wounded, citing a health ministry official.<\/p>\n
An AFP photographer saw security forces cordoning off the area around the mosque while inside, personnel stood guard as red tape encircled the blackened, debris-strewn corner where the blast went off.<\/p>\n
Usama Ibrahim, 47, who was being treated in hospital for shrapnel wounds to his head and back, said he was at Friday prayers when he heard a loud explosion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe world turned red\u2026 and I fell to the ground. Then I saw blood flowing from my head,\u201d he told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u2018Shrapnel all around\u2019
\nSyria\u2019s interior ministry said in a statement that \u201ca terrorist explosion\u201d targeted the mosque and that authorities had \u201cbegun investigating and collecting evidence to pursue the perpetrators of this criminal act\u201d.<\/p>\n
SANA quoted a security source as saying that initial investigations indicated that \u201cexplosive devices planted inside the mosque\u201d caused the blast.<\/p>\n
As victims\u2019 families gathered at the hospital, wounded bookseller Ghadi Maarouf, 38, told AFP that the explosion occurred \u201cjust before the imam was to ascend the minbar to deliver the sermon\u201d, referring to the imam\u2019s raised platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge explosion, and I saw shrapnel flying all around me,\u201d said Maarouf, whose leg was wounded in the blast.<\/p>\n
Syria\u2019s foreign ministry condemned a \u201ccowardly criminal act\u201d, saying it came \u201cin the context of repeated desperate attempts to undermine security and stability and spread chaos among the Syrian people\u201d.<\/p>\n
The ministry statement reiterated its \u201cfirm stance in combating terrorism in all its forms\u201d, vowing to hold the attackers accountable.<\/p>\n
Several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan condemned the attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An explosion killed at least eight worshippers at a mosque in a predominantly Alawite area of Syria\u2019s Homs on Friday, state media said. The attack during Friday prayers is the latest on the Alawite community, and the second blast in a place of worship since extremist authorities took power a year ago, after a suicide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14586,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14584\/revisions\/14586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}