At least 42 people were killed -- including a pro-government senior Muslim cleric -- and over 80 more were wounded in an explosion at the Iman Mosque in downtown Damascus yesterday, the RIA Novosti (Russian) website reports today (March 22, 2013).
According to Syria's SANA state news agency, a suicide bomber set off an explosive device at the mosque during a religious lesson given by Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The 84-year-old cleric and religious scholar was killed in the blast. Sheikh al-Buti used to deliver mosque sermons on Fridays on state television. He particularly condemned terrorism and violence.
Syria's Al-Ikhbariya television channel broadcast footage from the inside of the mosque after the blast, showing dozens of dead bodies mixed with scattered limbs and hands on the carpeted floor. The announcer on the channel said a suicide bomber entered the mosque and blew himself up.
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