Homs mosque blast kills at least eight, extremist group claims responsibility

Incident

An explosion ripped through the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighbourhood of Homs during Friday prayers, killing at least eight people and wounding 18, the health ministry said. State-run images showed scorched walls, broken windows and blood on the carpet; a security source quoted by Sana said an explosive was detonated inside the building. Syrian authorities are investigating and the Foreign Ministry condemned the attack as a terrorist act.

Background and claims

The Sunni extremist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah has claimed responsibility, saying it worked with another unidentified group and used explosives planted at the site. The faction, whose origins and affiliations are opaque, first drew attention after claiming a deadly church bombing in Damascus in June, and some observers have suggested it could be a front for Islamic State due to similarities in messaging and targets. The mosque is in a predominantly Alawite area, and the strike comes amid heightened sectarian tensions since the overthrow and exile of Bashar al-Assad last year, which has been followed by waves of reprisals and violence in several provinces, including Latakia, according to monitoring groups, as reported by BBC

This story has also been reported by: Al Jazeera, New York Times