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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Mosque Blast Kills Senior Syrian Imam in Damascus |
| 2013-03-21 |
| An explosion at a mosque in the Syrian capital on Thursday killed at least 15 people, including a senior pro-government Muslim cleric, state television and activists said. Syria TV said a "terrorist suicide blast" hit the Iman mosque in central Damascus, and Mohammed al-Buti, the imam of the ancient Ummayyad Mosque, was among the dead. Buti, a government-appointed cleric, delivered the official weekly Friday mosque sermons on state television. In one of his televised speeches, Buti had described the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad as 'scum'. He also used his position to call on Syrians to join the armed forces and help Assad defeat his rivals in the country's two-year-long rebellion. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across Syria, said around 15 people died in the blast in central Damascus. The Observatory said it was unclear if the explosion was caused by a car bomb or a mortar shell. Dozens more were wounded in the attack, it said. The explosion created panic in the city late on Thursday, residents said, with ambulances rushing to the area and traffic coming to a standstill. Buti, 83, had been a controversial figure from the start of the uprising. He quickly threw his support behind the Assad family, which has ruled Syria for more than four decades. The imam was reviled by the opposition, who saw him as a religious mouthpiece in support of Assad. Buti was a Sunni Muslim, the sect which makes up the majority of Syria's population. Sunnis have led the revolt against Assad, a movement that began as peaceful protests but devolved into bloody civil war that has sparked sectarian bloodshed between Sunnis and Assad's minority Alawite population. Buti was remembered for a sermon he gave early in the conflict in which he told President Assad he had had a vision that Syria would 'receive God's wrath', but would survive. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #2 "Mosque Blast Kills Senior Syrian Imam in Damascus" Awwwwwwww. Ain't that just too bad. :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara 2013-03-21 21:10 |
| #1 "hello karma my old friend, I've come to talk to you again" *bang* |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-03-21 20:27 |