Top Saudi clerics condemn France attack, urges focus on Syria - TV

French police secure the area as the investigation continues at the scene near the heavy truck that ran into a crowd at high speed killing scores who were celebrating the Bastille Day July 14 national holiday on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France, July 15, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's top religious body on Friday condemned the attack that killed 84 people in the French city of Nice, according to a statement published on Saudi TV channel Ekhbaria's website. The Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars also said the world should not be distracted from the war in Syria and what it called crimes by the "Syrian regime." "Islam values the sanctity of human blood and forbids terrorism which kills and terrifies peaceful people in their homes, markets and places of work. This terrorist crime ought to remind everyone of its equivalents in stricken Syria," it said. Saudi Arabia opposes the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has backed armed groups fighting his rule, . (Reporting By Noah Browning; editing by John Stonestreet)