Syria: 42 killed in Damascus mosque bombing

[Bosonic]

Source: AP

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian state TV says 42 people have been killed and 84 wounded in a suicide bomb attack inside a mosque in Damascus that also killed a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad.

Thursday's death of Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support of the Alawite leader among the majority sect that has risen up against him.

Syrian TV says among those killed were al-Buti's grandson. It did not elaborate.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/syria-hands-over-seized-lebanese-fighter-beirut

[leveymg]

1. This war will go on for another thousand years. :(

[aquart]

28. Idiot let himself be photographed?

How soon was he identified?

[David__77]

2. And the US is supporting this. The blowback will carry a heavy price.

Obama should stand against these children of Osama, and change course now.

The US should not instigate international terrorism.

[oberliner]

4. What are you saying US policy should be with respect to Syria?

Can you clarify?

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. MYOB.

[oberliner]

6. I was just asking

Curious to know that posters POV on the topic.

[Comrade Grumpy]

8. Sorry, not directed at you. It was my policy prescription:

Mind your own business. Stay out of that shitstorm.

[leveymg]

10. Unfortunately, nobody involved really believes the US is free of responsibilty.

We are already covered in blood and debris. Benghazi was just a warning gale of the whirlwind to come.

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. Doubtless. Too bad Fox News made Benghazi radioactive.

There are some serious unanswered questions there. Like just what was that CIA station up to?

[oberliner]

19. Got it now

Thanks for clarifying!

[David__77]

12. A few components.

First, ceasing financial, logistic, and military aid to any Syrian political party or forces - abandon the strategy of enforcing "regime change."

Respect the territorial integrity, national borders and sovereignty of the country, including by discouraging US allies from interfering in Syria's internal affairs - I am thinking of Turkey most importantly.

It is too late to, at this point, pick back up with the progress Obama had made in restoring normal diplomatic relations with Syria early in his first term. It will take time to get back to that point, in the unlikely case that "regime change" fails.

[aquart]

26. Okey dokey then.

LOL! Yeah, always smart to ignore the war.

Do you suggest we also ignore the million refugees and the potential to destabilize other MidEast countries.

BTW, how does one "respect borders" with thousands disrespecting them every day?

I love couch cushion policy.

[David__77]

34. I said the US should respect the borders.

And I did not say I think that the US should consider it to be its duty to ensure that others also do so under all circumstances. I'm not sure how anyone on this forum is advocating anything other than "couch cushion policy." The difference is that one costs the US lives and treasure, and the other may not.

Fanning the flames of international terror, indeed starting wars, is not a game.

[aquart]

29. And go WHERE?

My god, the internationally illiterate crap I am reading here today sounds like a bunch of first grade hand made greeting cards.

And the fucking sanctimonious ARROGANCE is gross.

[David__77]

35. And you propose what, that is not so "arrogant?"

Perhaps arms to Muslim terrorists?

[Beacool]

3. Poor people, poor Syria.

[mallard]

7. Re: report suggests the bombing was a 'success'

Article:

"Thursday's death of Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support of the Alawite leader ..."

Guess they don't count on sympathy for murder victims or resolution through the justice system. It's Assad's bad, no matter.

[Pterodactyl]

9. I can't believe they would target a place of worship. Disgusting.

[ButterflyBlood]

11. Well look at the context a bit

Let's imagine you had a church heavily linked to clerical fascists in some Nazi-occupied country that was attacked by the local resistance while it had a high ranking Nazi/collaborationist fascist speaking there?

I'm not going to argue any type of building should be off limits in a war like that, though of course the killing of 41 other people in this case is a perfectly valid criticism.

[David__77]

13. Are you saying that this cleric was like a Nazi, and those that killed him were like anti-Nazis?

Really? I think it is quite the opposite. In fact, the "clerical fascists" are those who are beating and killing people for violating "sharia" in Syria. It isn't the government! It's the barbaric insurgents that the US media is cheerleading.

[ButterflyBlood]

17. If he was a supporter of Assad's fascist regime, yes he was like a Nazi

Appropriate true considering this is the same regime that once harbored former Nazis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alois_Brunner

You are right that many of the anti-government people are also religious extremists, which is a concern, but hardly every single one of them is. The only real thing the insurgents all have in common is they want Assad gone. People who want Assad gone are an incredibly diverse group.

[David__77]

20. That's quite an assertion.

Do you think there is a single Arab state that would not have harbored Nazis? It wasn't just Syria. And as we can readily see by reviewing Arab media, the Nazis are seen as not so bad because at least they were anti-Semites.

Another point is that the Syrian people who want Assad to stay are also a very diverse group, and are certainly not mostly Baathists.

I'm an atheist. I happen to know that most Syrian atheists are "Alawites." They are followers of humanist ideology. The Alawites are the intellectual and cultural leading force of Syria, just as European Jewry in that continent was before Hitler unfolded his genocide. The Sunni supremacists want to enforce a new dark age and wipe out the Alawites, the seed of progress in that country.

[Pterodactyl]

15. But what if there were Qurans in there? You can't desecrate a Quran.

[ButterflyBlood]

16. That doesn't offend me

It's just a book, and there's hordes of other copies in the world.

[Throd]

21. Apparently that only applies to Christians

If a Christian frowns in the direction of a Koran, the "Arab street" goes apeshit and starts to burn things. Blowing up a mosque (and presumably a bunch of Korans) is OK if it is a mosque that worships Allah the wrong way.

[Comrade Grumpy]

22. You support mass-murdering suicide bombers targeting civilians?

Charming.

[Pterodactyl]

24. Uh, no. If you go back to my original post, I was denouncing a terror attack on a place of worship.

[Comrade Grumpy]

36. That wasn't aimed at you, but at the Bloody Butterfly.

[Pterodactyl]

37. Check your aim before you shoot. Always know what's behind your target.

[Scootaloo]

30. Amazing how far some people will go to defend mass murder of Muslims on DU

[pampango]

32. I think Assad's military has killed many more Muslims than the opposition has.

It is true that they have not killed them in mosques if that makes it any better. I trust none of us are defending them either.

[Scootaloo]

33. Nope, but there's ButterflyBlood justifying and supporting an act of terrorism.

By the argument that the one hundred and twenty-six human beings killed or injured in the blast "deserved it," via some very contorted and tortured Godwinning.

[aquart]

27. So you've paid no attention to regional events for decades?

'Mosque bombing Middle East' got 15,000,000 hits. Think it was all the same mosque?

[Pterodactyl]

38. Of course not. What's really weird is that it is almost always Muslims who attack mosques.

[aquart]

39. Nah. No one can disrespect a faith like one of its own.

[TwilightGardener]

18. Well...it's hard to see how we can support this sort of thing.

Are the "moderate" rebel groups (the ones that John McCain wants us to "vet" and arm) going to condemn this sort of violence?

[Malik Agar]

23. Past-Present-Future

The Middle East has been full of violence for thousands of years and it doesn't look like its going to change...

[Scootaloo]

31. Good to know!

Here I thought this all started two years ago! I'm soooo fucking glad someone on the internet tells me I'm off by nine hundred and nintey-eight years!

[cqo_000]

25. UN Condemns Syria Mosque Attack

The U.N. Security Council put aside its deep divisions and issued a rare statement Friday condemning "in the strongest terms" the terrorist attack on a mosque in Damascus that killed more than 40 Syrians, including a senior Muslim cleric.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned the suicide bombing that killed Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, a top Sunni preacher, as he was giving a sermon Thursday "in the strongest terms" and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

The Security Council statement called terrorism a serious threat to international peace and security and said any terrorist acts "are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation." It reiterated the council's determination to combat all forms of terrorism.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rare-unity-condemns-syria-mosque-attack-18790499