Assad Vows to Defeat Rebels After Islamic Scholar’s Death

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he will root out Islamist extremists after a suicide bomber killed dozens of people, including a senior Sunni scholar who was one of his staunchest supporters.

The explosion yesterday ripped through the Iman Mosque in Damascus where Sheikh Mohammad Said al-Bouti was giving a religious lesson, the state-run SANA news agency said today. The scholar, his grandson and 47 other people were killed, SANA said, citing the Health Ministry.

Al-Bouti remained a prominent supporter of Assad, an Alawite, even as many of his fellow Sunnis joined the uprising against the regime. Al-Bouti, born in in 1929, called on Syrians fighting to overthrow Assad to “repent and make their jihad consistent with religion,” SANA said on Jan. 11.

Assad is trying to quell the uprising that began in March 2011 and that’s killed more than 70,000 people according to United Nations estimates. Large swaths of the country are now under rebel control, including areas around the capital Damascus. Assad said al-Bouti was killed for facing “the forces of darkness and extremist” ideology in a message of condolence carried by SANA.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-22/assad-vows-to-defeat-rebels-after-islamic-scholar-s-death.html