- AMMAN: Irregular forces loyal to Syria’s Alawite President Bashar Al-Assad fired on Sunday at a group of people guarding a mosque in Banias, two witnesses said, as ethnic tension intensified in the mostly Sunni coastal city.
The group, who were armed with sticks, were guarding the Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq mosque at morning prayers when the Assad loyalists, known as “shabbiha,” fired at them with automatic rifles from speeding cars. Five people were injured, including a 47-year-old man who was hit in the chest, the witnesses — a doctor and a university professor — told Reuters.