Syria claims arrest of al-Qaeda bomber

Syrian authorities claimed to have arrested an al-Qaeda terrorist who planned to blow himself up in a Damascus mosque when it was most crowded Friday. The man, who the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency identified as Mohammad Houssam al-Sadaki, "confessed that there are other persons supposed to explode themselves in a number of Damascus mosques today during Friday prayers," the news agency said. It didn't identify them or provide additional information about them. It said al-Sadaki, who appeared to be in hit 20s, said he "was given an explosive vest as to explode himself inside al-Rifae Mosque during today's Friday noon prayers when the mosques are usually very crowded." Syria often blames the country's bloody violence, associated with a crackdown by President Bashar Assad's forces on dissidents, on "armed terrorist groups." The report came hours after a man identified by SANA as a suicide bomber in a Damascus suburb detonated his bomb-laden van outside one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines, wounding 14 people and damaging the shrine. The golden-domed Sayyida Zainab Mosque, located in a city of the same name 6 miles south of the Syrian capital, is said to contain the grave of Zaynab bint Ali, the granddaughter the Islamic prophet Mohammed through his daughter Fatimah. A car exploded outside the mosque Sept. 27, 2008. At least 52 people died in clashes and bombing across Syria on Thursday, opposition groups said. The Syrian Network for Human Rights, based in London, and the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said they had documented 78 deaths throughout Syrian cities Thursday.