Mosque-goers gathered for Friday prayers in the Syrian city of Homs when a bombing struck the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque, killing at least eight people and wounding 18 others, according to authorities. Syria’s Interior Ministry said preliminary investigations indicate explosive devices were planted inside the mosque and that security forces placed a cordon around the building as investigators worked to identify the perpetrators.
State media images released by Syria’s Arab News Agency showed visible damage inside the mosque, including blood on the carpets, holes in the walls, shattered windows and fire damage. The mosque is located in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood of Homs, described as an area dominated by the Alawite minority.
Syrian officials said investigators were searching for those behind the attack. The Interior Ministry said a security cordon was placed around the building and that the investigation was still at an early stage, with no perpetrators publicly identified.
A deputy imam for the mosque told Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariyah television that worshippers were praying when they “heard a loud explosion that knocked us to the ground.” He said fire broke out in one corner of the mosque and that people who were not wounded rushed to help get the injured out, with general security forces and the Red Crescent arriving shortly afterward.
The deputy imam said the explosion “shattered the mosque’s windows and caused a fire that burned copies of the Holy Quran.” He also described the immediate response inside the compound as the attack unfolded during the prayers.
The state-run reporting also placed the incident within the broader context of continuing instability after large-scale fighting had subsided, and highlighted long-standing sectarian, ethnic and political fault lines. The account described waves of sectarian clashes following the fall of President Bashar Assad last year, including attacks in March that triggered days of violence leaving hundreds of people dead, most of them Alawites.
Syria’s Supreme Alawite Islamic Council and the Diaspora issued a statement describing Friday’s attack as “a continuation of the organized extremist terrorism specifically targeting the Alawite community, and increasingly other Syrian groups as well,” and said it held the Syrian government “fully and directly responsible for these crimes,” adding that the “criminal acts will not go unanswered.” The Syrian government, through statements cited in the account, said it would continue combating terrorism, including a Foreign Affairs Ministry statement and remarks attributed to the information minister.
In parallel, a group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted on its Telegram channel. The report said the same group had previously claimed a June suicide attack in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed.
The United Nations also condemned the attack. The account quoted United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemns the deadly terrorist attack,” with U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying the U.N. chief stressed that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice and noted Syria’s commitment to combat terrorism.
Regional leaders and officials condemned the attack as well, including Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who said Lebanon reaffirmed “Lebanon’s support for Syria in its fight against terrorism.” The account added that intermittent clashes also continued to flare in Aleppo, with exchanges of fire between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces on and after Monday, prompting temporary closures of schools and public institutions.
On Friday, tensions also flared again between government security forces and Kurdish forces in Aleppo, with each side trading blame. In a statement attributed to the head of internal security in Aleppo province, Col. Mohammad Abdul Ghani, snipers from the SDF opened fire on a Ministry of Interior checkpoint and wounded an officer, while the SDF said forces associated with the Damascus government targeted a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces with rocket-propelled grenades, and they returned fire.