Explosion kills prominent pro-regime Sunni cleric

March 21, 2013

By SAS News staff

BREAKING: An explosion in the Iman Mosque in the Mazraa district of Damascus Thursday night killed a Sunni cleric closely allied with President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Nineteen other people were reportedly killed in the blast.

The official news agency, SANA counted forty civilians wounded in the explosion.

For years, Muhammad Said Ramadan al-Buti hosted a program on state television, and was seen by Syrians as a staunch Assad supporter.

Government security sources swarmed the surroundings of the Iman Mosque immediately after the blast.

While state media reported the death of  a “great scholar” in banner headlines characterizing the blast as a suicide bombing,  opposition- affiliated Sham News Network called the attack  a  “regime-orchestrated explosion”.