Idlib, Dec 29: A bombing at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs during prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, authorities said, as long-standing sectarian, ethnic and political fault lines continue to destabilise the country, even as large-scale fighting has subsided.Images released by Syria’s state-run Arab News Agency showed blood on the mosque’s carpets, holes in the walls, shattered windows and fire damage. The Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque is located in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, in an area of the Wadi al-Dhahab neighbourhood dominated by the Alawite minority.
SANA, citing a security source, said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque. Authorities were searching for the perpetrators, who have not yet been identified, and a security cordon was placed 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 a suicide attack in June, in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweila, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.