Bomb in Syrian mosque kills Assad ally

BEIRUT -- A suicide bombing tore through a mosque Thursday in Damascus, the Syrian capital, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad, along with 41 other people.

The assassination of Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support for the Alawite Muslim leader among the country's majority Sunni sect, which has risen up against him.

The powerful explosion struck as al-Buti, 84, a religious 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 2-year-old civil war. But Thursday's explosion marked the first time a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a mosque.

Syrian TV said 84 were wounded in the explosion.

Rebels have pressed closer to Assad's seat of power in Damascus after seizing large swaths of territory in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

The rebels also captured a village and other territory on the edge of the Golan Heights as fighting closed in on the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed later, activists and officials said.

The fighting in the sensitive area began Wednesday near the cease-fire line between Syrian and Israeli troops. If the rebels take over the Quneitra region, it will bring radical Islamic militants to a front line with Israeli troops.