Bashar Assad Vows To Rid Syria Of Extremists In Wake of Suicide Bombing

Bashar Assad Vows To Rid Syria Of Extremists In Wake of Suicide Bombing

Syrian President Bashar Assad has vowed to rid the country of Muslim extremists and terrorists after a suicide bombing in a Damascus mosque, killed nearly 50 people and wounded countless others.

The explosion also caused the death of Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, a Sunni cleric and one of president’s Assad most important supporters.

The Damascus suicide bomb attacks killed 49 people and wounded almost 80 in what was the first suicide bombing on a mosque in nearly two years. Assad’s regime blames al-Qaeda backed terrorists, and opposition forces that are involved in the two year long civil war that has torn Syria apart.

Al-Buti, the 84 year old cleric that died in the attack was a supporter of the Assad dynasty even from the first days of Bashar Assad’s father, Hafez Assad. He was also a Sunni preacher, a key factor, as his support gave a lot of credibility to the Shiite Assad regime in what is a largely Sunni Muslim country.

Accusations went both ways as opposition forces accused the Assad regime of orchestrating the attack to gain a better of public image. They also said that government forces loyal to president Bashar Assad don’t shy away from bombing and killing Syrian civilians, and that this week’s attack was nothing more than a set up.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday March 23 2013, 5:39 AM EST. Ref: LA Times. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0