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A bombing at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs during Friday prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, according to authorities, as long-running sectarian fault lines continue to destabilize the country even after large-scale fighting has subsided.
The attack took place at the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood, an area dominated by Syria’s Alawite minority, according to images released by Syria’s state-run Arab News Agency that showed blood on the mosque’s carpets and damage to walls, windows and the interior.
SANA, citing a security source, said preliminary investigations indicated that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque. Syria’s Interior Ministry said authorities were searching for the perpetrators, who had not yet been identified, and placed a security cordon around the building.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel. The statement came as the Syrian government pointed to earlier regional security concerns, including an attack in June that the same Telegram-claiming group said it carried out against a Greek Orthodox church outside Damascus.
In Friday’s attack, the deputy imam of the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque described the moments after the blast to Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariyah television. He said worshippers were praying when they “heard a loud explosion that knocked us to the ground,” that fire broke out in one corner of the mosque, and that those not wounded rushed to help get injured people out while general security forces and the Red Crescent arrived.
The deputy imam also said the explosion was “huge” and that it shattered the mosque’s windows and caused a fire that burned copies of the Holy Quran, according to the television account.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemns the deadly terrorist attack,” and stressed that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Dujarric also said Guterres noted Syria’s commitment to combat terrorism and hold perpetrators accountable.
The bombing unfolded against a backdrop of episodic sectarian clashes in Syria following the fall of President Bashar Assad last year, with Alawites targeted in some waves of violence. Assad, who is Alawite, fled to Russia, and Syria’s Supreme Alawite Islamic Council had earlier described attacks on Alawites as organized extremist terrorism targeting the community.
The Syrian government and regional leaders issued statements condemning the attack. Syria’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it reiterated its stance in combating terrorism “in all its forms and manifestations,” and the Syrian information minister, in a post on X, said remnants of the former regime, IS militants and collaborators had “converged on a single goal” of obstructing the path of the new state by undermining stability and civil peace.
Lebanon also condemned the bombing. In a statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reaffirmed “Lebanon’s support for Syria in its fight against terrorism.”
While the mosque bombing drew condemnation, clashes also continued elsewhere in Syria around the same period. On Monday, intermittent fighting broke out between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces in mixed neighborhoods in Aleppo, leading to temporary closures of schools and public institutions before a ceasefire was announced later. Tensions flared again on Friday between government security forces and Kurdish forces in Aleppo, with each side trading blame over an exchange involving a checkpoint, according to statements from Aleppo’s internal security head, Col. Mohammad Abdul Ghani, and a statement from the SDF.
The Associated Press reported that Abou Aljoud contributed from Beirut.