Assad Targets a Mosque in Rankous, Rural Damascus

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

September 28, 2013

The Syrian Coalition condemns the horrific car bomb explosion for which Assad forces are responsible in Rankous, near Khalid Bin al-Walid mosque (al-Sahil Mosque), north of Damascus. The explosion took place as worshippers emerged from Friday prayers. Approximately 37 people have died and more than 100 were injured; a large number of the victims are in a critical condition.

The Syrian people have been facing state terrorism for two-and-a-half years as the Assad regime systematically targets mosques, churches, and other cultural and religious places. Scores of Syrian citizens are killed on a daily basis by conventional weapons as leaders of the world contemplate an agreement to eliminate the regime’s stockpile of chemical weapons. Syrian civilians are being indiscriminately killed by all kinds of weapons from explosive barrels, to artillery shells, and car bombs.

The Assad regime must be stopped. Its conventional weapons must be eliminated along with its chemical weapons. This is not only a call on the international community, it is the duty of the international community to respond and it will bear full responsibility before history if it fails to carry out its duty.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.