BEIRUT, December 26. /TASS/. The number of people killed in the explosion at a mosque in Homs, Syria, has increased to eight, after initial reports had listed five deaths and more than twenty others wounded, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced.
"Internal security forces have arrived at the scene and set up cordons around the mosque. An operation to search for those responsible for the explosion is now in progress," the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the Al Watan newspaper.
The ministry further noted that civil defense teams are carrying out restoration work inside the building, which sustained material damage.
Preliminary findings indicate that an explosive device had been planted inside the Imam Ali Mosque in the Wadi Al-Zahab district and was detonated during Friday prayers.
No radical group has so far declared responsibility for the attack.
Homs, situated 165 kilometers north of Damascus, is Syria’s third-largest city and a major industrial center. Before the internal conflict erupted in 2011, its population was approximately 1.8 million, including members of religious minorities such as Christians and Alawites.