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Syrian minister leads mourners for killed cleric

Sheikh Mohammed Adnan Afiouni died when his car was targeted with an explosive device.

Afiouni was close to President Bashar al-Assad and played a large part in government ‘reconciliation efforts’ with armed groups who’d taken control of the suburbs during the civil-war.

He was a leading conservative scholar who preached against Sunni radicalism and the Muslim Brotherhood, which took up arms against the current president's father, Hafez al-Assad.

Afiouni headed up the Cham Islamic Centre to fight Terrorism and Extremism that trains hundreds of clerics and mosque imams before their employment by the state.