US trained terrorists assassinate pro-Assad Sunni Imam, dozens of worshipper in Mosque bombing

Bombing kills top pro-Assad Sunni imam
22 March, 2013 – Daily Star

BEIRUT: A suicide bombing tore through a mosque in the Syrian capital Thursday, killing a top Sunni Muslim imam and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad along with at least 41 other people. The assassination of Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support for the Alawite leader among the majority sect that has risen up against him.

The powerful explosion struck as Buti, an 84-year-old imam and religious scholar who appeared often on TV, was giving a religious lesson in the Iman Mosque in the central Mazraa district of Damascus, according to state TV.

Suicide bombings blamed on extremists fighting with the rebels have become common in Syria’s civil war. But Thursday’s explosion marked the first time a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a mosque.

Syrian TV footage showed wounded people and bodies with severed limbs on the blood-stained floor and later, bodies covered in white body bags lined up in rows. Sirens wailed through the capital as ambulances rushed to the scene of the explosion, which was sealed off by the military.

Among those killed were Buti’s grandson, the TV said, adding that at least 84 were wounded.

The government warned that those fighting to topple the regime would face retribution for the attack, saying that the “cowardly act that targeted the scholar Buti will not go unpunished,” according to the state news agency SANA.

Buti’s death was a big blow to Syria’s embattled leader, who is fighting mainly Sunni rebels seeking his ouster.

The imam has been a vocal supporter of his regime since the early days of Assad’s father and predecessor, the late President Hafez Assad. He was the regular imam of the eighth century Umayyad Mosque, but Syrian TV said he was giving a religious sermon to students at Iman Mosque when the explosion occurred.

In recent months, Syrian TV has carried his sermon from mosques in Damascus live every week.

Syrian TV began its evening newscast with a phone announcement from Religious Endowments Minister Mohammad Abdel-Sattar al-Sayyed declaring Buti’s “martyrdom” as his voice choked up. It then showed parts of his sermon last Friday in which he praised the military for battling the “mercenaries” and said Syria was being subjected to a “universal conspiracy.”

Rebel spokesman Loay Mekdad said units associated with the opposition’s Free Syrian Army were not behind the attack.
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