Mosque Bombing in Syria Kills 8

A bombing at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs during Friday prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, authorities said, as long-standing sectarian, ethnic, and political fault lines destabilize the country, even as large-scale fighting has subsided. Syria's state-run Arab News Agency, citing a security source, said 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, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. A little-known group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel, the AP reports.

Images released by Syria's state-run Arab News Agency showed 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 neighborhood dominated by the Alawite minority. The same group had claimed a suicide attack in June 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 on a Sunday. The Syrian government blamed the church attack on a cell of the Islamic State group, saying IS had also planned to target a Shiite Muslim shrine. IS did not claim responsibility for the attack.

The mosque's deputy imam told Syria's state-run Al-Ikhbariyah television that worshippers were praying when they "heard a loud explosion that knocked us to the ground. Fire broke out in one corner of the mosque. Those of us who were not wounded rushed to help get the injured out. Within minutes, general security forces and the Red Crescent arrived." He said the blast caused a fire "that burned copies of the Holy Quran." Neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon, condemned the attack.