Iran Press/Middle East: The explosion that killed Damascus Mufti Mohammed Adnan Afiouni took place in Qudsaya, west of the Syrian capital. It was unknown who planted the roadside bomb, and no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The cleric was first reported wounded and then declared dead soon after.
Syria’s ministry of religious endowment, or Awqaf, announced Afiouni’s death, calling it a terrorist act.
Afiouni had been a key figure in the government’s so-called reconciliation deals with rebels and opposition-held areas.
He was one of the mediators of the 2016 deal under which rebel fighters in Daraya, a key town in Damascus suburbs, surrendered after a four-year grueling siege and military campaign. The rebel fighters and remaining residents were evacuated to the northwestern province of Idlib, and government forces entered the destroyed town in 2016.
214/221
Read More:
33 civilians killed and injured in northern Syria bomb blast
Car bomb blast in Syrian city of Al-Bab kills two people
Car bomb explodes in northeastern Syria; 14 people killed and injured
Northern Syria: 9 killed and wounded in two separate blasts
