IDLIB, Syria (AP) — A bombing at a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs during Friday prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, authorities said, as long-standing sectarian, ethnic and political fault lines continue to destabilize the country, even as large-scale fighting has subsided.

Images released by Syria’s state-run Arab News Agency showed blood on the mosque’s carpets, holes in the walls, shattered windows and fire damage. The Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque is located in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, in an area of the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood dominated by the Alawite minority.

SANA, citing a security source, said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque. Authorities were searching for the perpetrators, who have not yet been identified, and a security cordon was placed around the building, Syria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

A little-known group calling itself Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its Telegram channel. The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.

The Syrian government blamed the church attack on a cell of the Islamic State group, saying IS had also planned to target a Shiite Muslim shrine. IS did not claim responsibility for the attack. The group follows an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and considers Shiites to be infidels.

Syria recently joined the global coalition against IS and has launched a crackdown on IS cells, particularly after an attack on U.S. forces earlier this month that killed two service members and a civilian translator.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “unequivocally condemns the deadly terrorist attack,” and stresses that those responsible must be identified and brought to justice, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The U.N. chief also noted Syria’s commitment to combat terrorism and hold perpetrators accountable.

Targeted violence against Alawites

The country has experienced several waves of sectarian clashes since the fall of President Bashar Assad last year. Assad, himself an Alawite, fled the country to Russia. Members of his sect have been subjected to crackdowns.

In March, an ambush carried out by Assad’s supporters against security forces triggered days of violence that left hundreds of people dead, most of them Alawites.

In a statement, the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora described the attack as “a continuation of the organized extremist terrorism specifically targeting the Alawite community, and increasingly other Syrian groups as well.”

The council held the Syrian government “fully and directly responsible for these crimes,” adding that “these criminal acts will not go unanswered.”

Local officials condemned Friday’s attack, saying it came “within the context of repeated desperate attempts to undermine security and stability and sow chaos among the Syrian people.”

“Syria reiterates its firm stance in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added in a statement.

“Remnants of the former regime, IS militants and collaborators have converged on a single goal: obstructing the path of the new state by undermining stability, threatening civil peace, and eroding the shared coexistence and common destiny of Syrians throughout history,” the Syrian information minister said in a post on X.

Huge explosion shattered mosque’s windows

The mosque’s deputy imam — a religious official who helps lead prayers — told Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariyah television that worshippers were praying when they “heard a loud explosion that knocked us to the ground. Fire broke out in one corner of the mosque. Those of us who were not wounded rushed to help get the injured out. Within minutes, general security forces and the Red Crescent arrived.”

“The explosion was huge,” he said. “It shattered the mosque’s windows and caused a fire that burned copies of the Holy Quran.”

Neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon, also condemned the attack. In a statement, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reaffirmed “Lebanon’s support for Syria in its fight against terrorism.”

On Monday, clashes erupted intermittently between Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces, in mixed neighborhoods in the northern city of Aleppo, forcing temporary closures of schools and public institutions and prompting civilians to shelter indoors. A late-evening ceasefire was then announced by both sides amid ongoing de-escalation efforts.

Tensions flared again on Friday between government security forces and Kurdish forces in Aleppo, with the two sides trading blame.

The head of internal security in Aleppo province, Col. Mohammad Abdul Ghani in a statement said snipers from the SDF opened fire on a Ministry of Interior checkpoint, wounding an officer, and security forces returned fire.

The SDF in a statement said that “factions affiliated with the Damascus government” targeted a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces with rocket-propelled grenades and they returned fire.

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Abou Aljoud contributed from Beirut.