Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti and at least 41 others were killed in an explosion during evening prayers
A suicide bombing has torn through a mosque in Damascus killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of Bashar al-Assad along with at least 41 others.
The assassination of Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support for the Syrian president among Sunnis – the majority sect that has risen up against him.
The explosion struck as al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric and scholar who appeared often on TV, was giving a religious lesson in the Eman mosque in the central Mazraa district of Damascus, according to state TV.
Suicide bombings blamed on Islamic extremists fighting with the rebels have become common in Syria's two-year-old civil war. But Thursday's explosion marked the first time a bomber has detonated explosives inside a mosque.
Syrian TV said 84 people were injured in the blast and showed footage of wounded people and bodies with severed limbs on the bloodstained floor and later, bodies covered in white body bags lined up in rows.
Al-Buti's death is a serious blow to Syria's embattled leader. The cleric has been a vocal supporter of his regime since the early days of Assad's father and predecessor, the late former president Hafez Assad.
In recent months, Syrian TV has carried his sermon from mosques in Damascus live every week.