A car bomb exploded near a mosque north of the Syrian capital as worshippers emerged from Friday prayers, killing at least 30 people, activists said.
The blast, which struck outside the al-Sahel mosque in the town of Rankous, also wounded dozens of people, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It was not clear whether the mosque itself was the target of the attack.
Mohammed Saeed, an activist in the eastern Damascus suburb of Douma, and the Observatory’s director Rami Abdul-Rahman both said the town is held neither by the rebels nor by the regime in Syria’s civil war. Abdul-Rahman said residents have an agreement with the rebels not to bring weapons into Rankous in order to avoid Government shelling.