Army shelling destroys historic Syrian shrine

Syrian army shelling destroyed the historic mausoleum of a companion of the Prophet Mohammed in the central city of Homs on Monday, a monitoring group and activists said. Reports of the destruction of the Muslim pilgrimage site emerged as an intense army campaign to reclaim rebel-held areas of Homs, a strategic junction city, entered its fourth week. "Activists from the Khaldiyeh neighbourhood in the city of Homs have reported the destruction by army shelling of the mausoleum of the prophet's companion Khaled bin Walid," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Housed in the rebel area of Khaldiyeh, the Khaled bin Walid mosque had already suffered significant damage during earlier fighting for control of the city. Amateur video distributed by activists showed the Ottoman-era mosque, renowned for its two towering minarets, and images of what was identified as the destroyed mausoleum. "The Khalid bin Walid mosque was shelled, and the shrine was completely destroyed," said the unnamed activist filming the footage. The images show mounds of rubble, stone and metal at the site identified as the mausoleum. The video also shows an unidentified man lashing out at the world over the destruction of the shrine. "I want to tell Arabs and Muslims, how will you face God after Khalid bin Walid's shrine has been destroyed? Why have you abandoned besieged Homs?" says the ma Khaldiyeh and the Old City neighbourhoods of Homs, still under rebel control, have been under suffocating army siege and near-daily bomb attacks for more than a year. For more than three weeks, the army has intensified its campaign to take back the rebel-held areas, but despite temporary advances the neighbourhoods remain out of regime control, activists say. Khalid bin Walid's shrine, an important pilgrimage site for Muslims, is the latest of a series of Syrian religious and cultural sites damaged or destroyed in the course of the country's 28-month war. In the war-torn northern city of Aleppo, the minaret of the landmark Umayyad mosque was destroyed in April, while parts of the ancient souks were burnt down in September last year.