Eight dead and 18 injured in an attack on a mosque in Syria

A bomb attack at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs during Friday prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, authorities said.

Images published by the state-run Syrian 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 an area of ​​the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood dominated by the Alawite minority in Homs, Syria’s third largest city.

SANA, citing a security source, said preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were placed inside the mosque. The authorities were searching for the perpetrators of the attack. A security cordon was placed around the mosque, Syria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Tensions have flared in several parts of Syria in recent weeks as long-standing sectarian, ethnic and political fractures continue. destabilize the countryeven as large-scale fighting has subsided. USA strikes carried out in the country last week after a ambush by ISIS fighters killed two American soldiers and an American citizen who worked as an interpreter.

The country has experienced several waves of sectarian clashes since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad last year. Assad, himself an Alawite, fled the country to Russia. Members of his sect have been subject to repression.

In March, an ambush by Assad supporters against security forces triggered days of violence that killed hundreds of people, most of them Alawites.

Local officials condemned Friday’s attack, saying it came “against the backdrop of repeated desperate attempts to undermine security and stability and sow chaos among the Syrian people.”

“Syria reiterates its firm stance in the fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added in a statement.

“The remnants of the old regime, ISIS militants and their collaborators have converged on a single objective: to obstruct the path of the new State by undermining stability, threatening civil peace and eroding the shared coexistence and common destiny of Syrians throughout history,” the Syrian Information Minister said in a post on X.

Neighboring 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 its fight against terrorism.”

On Monday, intermittent clashes broke out between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters, the Syrian Democratic Forces, in mixed neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo, forcing schools and public institutions to temporarily close and forcing civilians to take shelter in their homes. Both sides subsequently announced a ceasefire late in the afternoon amid ongoing efforts to reduce tensions.