A suicide bomb attack on a central Damascus mosque has killed 45 people, including Syria’s most prominent pro-regime Sunni cleric, wounding dozens of others, the Health Ministry said.
The attack came on Thursday as heavy fighting raged across Syria, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said the United Nations would investigate whether chemical weapons have been used in the conflict.
The bomber blew himself up inside the Iman Mosque as the cleric, Mohamed al-Bouti, addressed religious students, in an attack that echoed sectarian violence in Iraq.
“The number of those martyred in the terrorist suicide attack in the Iman Mosque rises to 45 martyrs with 81 injured,” State television said, citing the Health Ministry.
President Bashar al-Assad vowed to "cleanse" his country of extremism. The attack was also condemned by the opposition, who raised the possibility that the regime was behind the deadly blast. Bouti was the most senior pro-regime Sunni cleric in Syria. His weekly addresses at Friday prayers were frequently broadcast live on State television.