An explosion occurred during Friday prayers at a mosque in Homs, Syria, killing at least eight people and wounding 18, the Health Ministry said.
Photos reported by the Syrian state news agency Sana show the interior of the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque with black and charred walls, broken windows and blood on the carpet.
Officials believe the explosive went off inside the building, Sana reported, citing security sources. While authorities are still searching for the perpetrators, the jihadist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah has claimed responsibility.
The mosque is located in the Wadi al-Dhahab area, where most people belong to the Alawite ethno-religious group.
In a statement against
Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, a Sunni extremist group, said it carried out the attack in collaboration with other unidentified groups using explosives planted at the site.
The group’s ambiguous origins and opaque affiliations, which rose to prominence last June when it claimed responsibility for the deadly church bombings in Damascus, have raised questions about its true connection and authenticity.
Some observers have speculated that it could be a front for the Islamic State (IS), given the similarity in message and type of target.
The latest claims follow a months-long lull in claims of attacks by Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, which largely took the form of alleged targeted killings of ethnic minorities and what it described as a “remnant” of former Syrian government Bashar al-Assad.
The explosion occurred a year after Syrian rebels ousted Assad, an Alawite. This sect is a branch of Shia Islam, and its members are one of the country’s largest religious minorities.
Since then, there have been several outbreaks of sectarian violence in Syria, with Alawites fearing reprisals and facing crackdowns. Assad fled to Russia, an ally of his regime, and he and his family were granted asylum.
In March, security forces were accused of killing dozens of Alawites in the coastal province of Latakia, war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
Additional reporting from BBC Monitoring
