A suicide bomber killed nine
people, some of them security men, outside a Damascus mosque on Friday, Syrian state media
said, in another blow to a fraying U.N.-brokered truce between President Bashar
al-Assad and rebels fighting for his downfall.
The explosion under a flyover
occurred as worshippers were leaving the Midan district's Zain al-Abideen
mosque, which was under heavy security due to its reputation as a launchpad for
anti-Assad demonstrations after Friday prayers.
A resident who spoke to security
officials at the scene said they reported a man in military uniform walking
towards the area from a nearby street.
When several soldiers went to
challenge him, he triggered an explosives vest, they said. Many of the body
parts scattered across the tarmac were wearing green military-style clothing,
the resident added.
State media said 28 people were
also wounded in the blast, one of several in the country of 23 million on
Friday.
"We had been trying to go to
pray in the area but they stopped us at a checkpoint. Security weren't letting
us in because there are usually protests there," one anti-Assad activist
told Reuters by telephone.
"Then we heard the blast. It
was so loud and then ambulances came rushing past us," the activist added.
"I could see a few body parts and pieces of flesh on the road. The front
of a restaurant looked destroyed. People were screaming." CONTINUE . . . . .
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