Mosque bombing in Syria leaves 6 dead and 21 wounded

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BEIRUT (AP) — A bombing at a mosque located in the Syrian city of Homs during Friday prayers killed at least six people and wounded 21 others, authorities said.

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 a predominantly Alawite area of the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city.

SANA, citing a security source, said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque. 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 across several parts of Syria in recent weeks as long-running sectarian, ethnic and political fault lines continue to destabilize the country, even as large-scale fighting has subsided.

The country has experienced several waves of sectarian clashes since the fall of President Bashar Assad last year in attacks by insurgents led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, headed by now interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa,

Assad, himself an Alawite, fled the country to Russia. Members of his sect have been subjected to crackdowns. In March, an ambush carried out by Assad’s supporters against security forces triggered days of sectarian attacks that left hundreds of people dead, most of them Alawites.

On Monday, clashes have erupted intermittently between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters, the Syrian Democratic Forces, in mixed neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo, forcing temporary closures of schools and public institutions and prompting civilians to shelter indoors. A late-evening ceasefire was then announced by both sides amid ongoing de-escalation efforts.