A bomb exploded at a mosque during Friday prayers.
IDLIB, Syria — A bomb exploded at a mosque during Friday prayers in the Syrian city of Homs, killing at least eight people and wounding 18 others.
officials said, as long-standing sectarian, ethnic and political fault lines are destabilising the country, even as large-scale fighting has subsided.
Pictures released by Syria’s state-run Arab News Agency showed blood on the mosque’s carpets, holes in the walls, broken windows; and fire damage.
The Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib Mosque is located in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighbourhood, an area dominated by the Alawite minority in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city.
SANA, citing a security source, reported that preliminary investigations revealed the presence of explosive devices within the mosque.
Authorities are searching for the perpetrators, who have not yet been identified, and have set up a security cordon around the building, Syria’s interior ministry said in a statement.
A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.
The same group had previously claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in June, when a gunman opened fire inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweila, on the outskirts of Damascus, and then detonated an explosive, killing 25 people who were attending Sunday prayers.
The Syrian government blamed a cell of the Islamic State group for the church attack and said IS had also planned to target a Shia Muslim shrine.
IS has not claimed responsibility for the attack. The group follows an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and considers Shias to be infidels.
Syria has recently joined the global coalition against IS. And it has launched a crackdown on IS cells, especially after attacks on US forces earlier this month killed two service members and a civilian translator.
The country has experienced several waves of communal clashes since the fall of President Bashar Assad last year.
Assad, himself an Alawite, fled the country to Russia. Assad has taken action against members of his sect.
In March, days of violence followed an ambush against security forces by Assad’s supporters. Hundreds of people died. Most of them are Alawites.
In a statement, the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora described the attack as “a continuation of organised extremist terrorism targeting exclusively the Alawite community and increasingly other Syrian groups”.
The council held the Syrian government “fully and directly responsible for these crimes” and said that “these criminal acts will not go unanswered.”
Local officials condemned Friday’s attack, saying it occurred “in the context of continued desperate efforts to undermine security and stability and create chaos among the Syrian people.”
“Syria reiterates its firm stance in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“The remnants of the former regime, IS terrorists and allies have converged on the same goal: obstructing the path to a new state by undermining stability,
endangering civil peace and destroying the shared coexistence and common destiny of the Syrian people throughout history,” the Syrian information minister said in a post on Twitter.
The mosque’s deputy imam – a religious official who helps lead prayers – told Syria’s state broadcaster, Al-Ikhbariya television that worshipers were praying when they
“heard a loud explosion that knocked us to the ground. A corner of the mosque caught fire. Those of us without injuries rushed to assist in evacuating the injured. Within minutes, general security forces and the Red Crescent arrived.”
“The explosion was huge,” he said. “It broke the windows of the mosque and caused a fire that burnt copies of the Holy Quran.”
Neighbouring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon, also condemned the attack. In a statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reaffirmed “Lebanon’s support for Syria in the fight against terrorism.”
On Monday, intermittent clashes broke out between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces
in mixed neighbourhoods of the northern city of Aleppo, forcing the temporary closure of schools and public institutions and forcing civilians to shelter indoors.
A ceasefire was announced by both sides late in the evening amid ongoing efforts to reduce tensions.
