In the city of al Suqaylabiyah, an attack took place during the inauguration ceremony of the sacred building dedicated to Hagia Sophia, the former Byzantine basilica transformed into a mosque in Istanbul. The terrorist action is attributed to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the armed opposition to Bashar al Assad that still controls a large area of northern Syria. The aggression occurs a few days after the renewed promises of “de-escalation” at the summit between Erdogan, Putin and Raissi.
Hama ( / Agencies) – Two people died and 12 were injured on Sunday, July 25, after an attack during the inauguration of a church in the central Syrian province of Hama. It happened in the city of Suqaylabiyah, at the time when a crowd of people – together with the local Syrian authorities – were celebrating the inauguration of the sacred building that bears the name of Haghia Sophia, the monumental Byzantine church in Istanbul transformed into a mosque.
A video of the incident shows images of a drone with an explosive charge that crashes in the vicinity of the church during the celebration, leaving people dead and injured. The terrorist action has been attributed to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Qaeda formation with strong support in Turkey that still controls large areas of the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia, the last focus of armed opposition to the Government of Bashar al Assad that follows active eleven years after the beginning of the conflict in Syria. In recent days, a bombardment by Russian fighter planes – which support Bashar al Assad – had caused the death of seven people in the areas controlled by the rebels.
In March 2020, Russia and Turkey brokered a truce in and around the Idlib region, regularly breached by attacks from both sides. The de-escalation of this front of the conflict in Syria was one of the topics discussed last week at the Tehran summit of the Astana group, during the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Iranian Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi.
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