Home
Shrines of Hazrat Uwais Qarni Attacked
Published on
Saturday, 29 March 2014
10:05 pm
//
world news
Militants have bombed a large Shia Muslim shrine in the northern
Syrian city of Raqqa.
Photos of the
mosque of Ammar bin Yasir and Uwais al-Qarani posted on the internet on
Wednesday showed extensive damage to the exterior walls and roof of the site.
Other pictures
showed concrete and twisted metal strewn on the street outside the mosque with
an interior wall collapsed inward.
The site, seized
over a year ago by militants fighting against the Syrian government, was once a
destination for Shia Muslim pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq.
The London-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the so-called Islamic State of Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL) had carried out two powerful explosions at the mosque
earlier in the day.
The al-Qaeda
splinter ISIL and other Takfiri militant groups have targeted many historical
and religious sites in Syria over the past three years.
Among them are
the holy shrine of Hazrat Zaynab (AS) -- the daughter of the first Shia Imam,
Imam Ali (PBUH), and Hazrat Fatemeh (PBUH), Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)'s daughter
-- as well as churches in the Christian village of Maaloula, near the capital
city of Damascus.
Syria has been
gripped by deadly violence since 2011. Some sources say over 140,000 people
have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence fueled by
Western-backed militants.
According to
reports, the Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar,
Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
A recent British
defense study showed that about 100,000 militants, fragmented into 1,000
groups, are fighting in Syria against the government and people.
0 comments