Homs, Syria, December 27: At least eight people were killed and more than 18 wounded when an explosion struck a mosque in Syria’s central province of Homs during Friday prayers, local officials said, in an attack authorities warned was aimed at destabilising the country.
The blast hit the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi al-Dahab neighbourhood, an area with a large Alawite population. State media said the explosion occurred inside the mosque as worshippers were gathered for prayers.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed people fleeing the scene in panic, with some victims carried on stretchers and others wrapped in cloaks as ambulances arrived.
Local officials told Reuters the explosion may have been caused by a suicide bomber or explosives planted inside the mosque. Images from the site showed a small crater in a wall of the main prayer hall, with scorched surfaces, torn prayer carpets and debris scattered across the floor.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said security forces had cordoned off the area and launched an investigation.
A group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack and warned that its operations would “continue and escalate”.
Syria’s government condemned the bombing, calling it a “desperate attempt to undermine security and stability and sow chaos among the Syrian people”. “Syria reiterates its firm stance in combating terrorism in all its forms,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The information minister said in a post on X that remnants of the former regime, Islamic State militants and their collaborators were seeking to undermine civil peace and destabilise the country. Analysts said the attack appeared designed to inflame sectarian tensions in Homs, a religiously diverse city that has seen repeated violence since the conflict began more than a decade ago.
The bombing underscores Syria’s fragile security situation a year after the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, as new authorities struggle to assert control. The attack comes amid ongoing efforts to combat Islamic State, including recent U.S. airstrikes on ISIL positions in Syria and Damascus joining a global anti-ISIL alliance in November.
