At least eight people were killed on Friday in an attack on an Alawite mosque in the Syrian city of Homs. The Syrian state news agency SANA reports this based on information from the Ministry of Health. An estimated eighteen people have been injured, SANA writes, and that number could increase.
During Friday afternoon prayers in the mosque, usually the busiest time of the day, an explosive went off in the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib mosque. The authorities assume terrorist intent, but no group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the attack on Friday, according to SANA, an “attempt to destabilize Syria.” “Syria is determined to fight terrorism in all its forms.”
Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime a year ago, there has been unrest between various groups in the country and within the army. Several episodes of sectarian violence occurred. Last March, more than a thousand Alawites were killed. Assad belonged to that religious community, a breakaway from the Shiites, who form a minority in Syria. In July, hundreds of Druze, also a religious minority, were killed in southern Syria.
Two American soldiers and an interpreter were killed in Palmyra, Syria, earlier this month. The United States claimed they were killed by a member of the Islamic State group, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacker was a Syrian soldier.
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