HOMS, Syria, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- Under heavy security and amid an atmosphere thick with grief, dozens of mourners gathered Saturday at the Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque in Homs to bid farewell to victims of a deadly bombing that struck the mosque during Friday prayers.
Wrapped in white shrouds, the bodies of victims were carried out as cries of sorrow echoed through the courtyard. Women wailed, men stood silently with clenched fists, and faces bore a mix of shock, anger and disbelief. The attack, which killed at least eight and injured 18 others, has shaken the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood, a predominantly Alawite area of the city.
Standing inside the damaged mosque, Imam and preacher Mohi al-Din Salloum said the attack was aimed not at a single community, but at Syria's fragile calm.
"The goal is to ignite sedition," Salloum said. "Yes, Alawites were harmed, pressured and killed, but the real target is to ensure that Syria never settles."
He said the bombing crossed every moral boundary. "I never imagined that terrorists would go so far as to target a mosque on Friday, a day of prayer. This act exceeded all our expectations of criminality," he said, his voice breaking as he recalled scenes of wounded children and grieving mothers.
Residents echoed the same sentiment during the funeral procession. Shadi Darwish, a longtime resident of Wadi al-Dhahab, described the attack as a profound shock.
"What happened was sudden and devastating," he said. "People came to pray, and this explosion happened. This is terrorism. We have lived together all our lives. We never labeled each other by sect. We lived side by side."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the victims belonged to the Alawite community, noting the sensitive sectarian context of the attack. A little-known radical group calling itself Ansar al-Sunnah said it carried out the attack. It also claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing at a Damascus church in June that killed 25 people.
Little information is available about the group, which emerged earlier this year following the country's political transition.
According to preliminary findings, the explosion was caused by explosive devices planted inside the mosque, in an area that was crowded with worshippers at the time of the blast.
Syrian interior authorities said investigations are ongoing to determine the full circumstances of the bombing and identify all those responsible, stressing that such attacks seek to undermine social cohesion at a time when the country is struggling to restore stability.
Syria has witnessed a series of sectarian violence since longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, an Alawite, was ousted by a rebel offensive last year, ushering in a government led by members of the Sunni Muslim majority.
In one of the most recent attacks, two U.S. soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed earlier this month in central Syria by an assailant authorities described as a suspected member of the Islamic State.
"Syria cannot succeed in one color alone," Imam Salloum said. "It can only succeed with all its sects and communities. Those who want blood to keep flowing will not decide our future." ■
