Security officials are investigating the cause of the blast, which currently remains unknown.
11:53, Fri, Dec 26, 2025 Updated: 11:54, Fri, Dec 26, 2025
Black smoke rises from the Imam Ali mosque. (Image: X social media)
A powerful explosion ripped through a busy mosque on Friday, killing at least five people and injuring 21. The horrifying incident happened in the central Syrian city of Homs at the Imam Ali mosque inside the Wadi al-Dhahab neighbourhood.
The district is an Alawite-majority area - a religious group to which Syria's deposed President Bashar al-Assad belongs. Emergency services rushed to the scene following the deadly explosion, and the area has been cordoned off by police. Dr Najib Al-Na'san, the director of the Referral, Ambulance, and Emergency Directorate at the Syrian Ministry of Health, told SANA news agency: "Five people were killed and 21 were injured in the explosion at the Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque in the Wadi Al-Zahab neighbourhood of Homs, according to preliminary figures."
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VIDEO | Inside Syria's Imam Ali Mosque, in the Wadi al-Dhahab neighborhood of Homs, in the aftermath of the attack on worshippers moments ago.
Syrian health authorities report that at least 5 have been killed and 21 injured.
Security officials are investigating the cause of the blast. Sources reportedly claim initial investigations indicate several IEDs were planted inside the mosque.
Video images apparently shot in the aftermath of the explosion show debris - presumably shattered glass - lying on the road outside the mosque.
No group has as yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, there has been a recent increase in ISIS activity in Syria, Al Jazeera reports.
The US bombed ISIS positions in the country last week in retaliation for the killings of two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter.
Damascus also joined a global anti-ISIS alliance in November, vowing to crush the remaining elements of the group.
It comes as two people were killed and at least seven others injured in a suspected terror attack in Israel on Friday.
The suspect stabbed a nineteen-year-old woman at the entrance to Kibbutz Tel Yosef in the Jezreel Valley, before running over a 68-year-old man on HaShomron Street in Beit She'an.
The suspected terrorist was shot by an armed citizen and neutralised, according to local reports.
The incidents in Syria and Israel happened just a day after ISIS called for attacks on Christians and Jews in the US, Europe and Israel during the holiday period.
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