It was the newly-built Hagia Sophia Church's inaugural celebration.

The weapons landed just 15 meters from where clerics and the congregation were gathered in front of the building.

The attack has been variously attributed to rockets, missiles or armed drones.

The church, which is about 30 miles northwest of Hama, had been built as a replica of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia by Syria's Bashar al-Assad and Russia's Vladimir Putin governments.

It was their response to the Turkish government converting the original Hagia Sophia building into a mosque.

The local Greek Orthodox community would use it as their church. Before the Syrian war, the town had about 20,000 Orthodox Christians.

Syria's state media attributed the attack to "terrorist organisations".

Yohanna X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, in a phone call with the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Hama, condemned the attack.

"Our children in Suqaylabiyah are paying the price of their faith with blood… What happened in Suqaylabiyah is a despicable and reprehensible act of terrorism," he said.

Rebel Islamic militias are fighting with the government and partly control several provinces.

Source

• CNA
• La Croix