Syria
An attack in a church left 20 dead in Damascus
Syrian authorities have pointed out the Islamic State group after a deadly attack on Sunday in a church in Damascus.
Rescuers and other people inspect the damage to the Saint-Elie church in Damascus, after a suicide attack, Sunday June 22, 2025.
AFP
A suicide bombing left at least 20 dead on Sunday in a Christian church in Damascus, according to the Syrian authorities who accused a member of the Islamic State jihadist group of being the author.
The United Nations and several countries condemned this attack, the first of this type in the Syrian capital since forces led by radical Islamists overthrew the ex-president Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.
Security remains one of the biggest challenges For new Syrian authorities, which the international community called for protecting minorities and including them in the transition process.
Faithful “tried to stop it”
The Ministry of the Interior said that a “suicide bomber affiliated with the Daesh terrorist group entered the Saint-Élie church, in the Dwelaa district of Damascus, opened fire and blew itself up with an explosive belt”.
AFP correspondents saw the rescuers evacuating people after this attack, which damaged the church where debris of wood and icons were scattered on the ground, strewn with puddles of blood. The security forces have completed the sector.
According to the Ministry of Health, quoted by the Sana news agency, the attack left 20 people dead and 52 injured. A witness, Lance Maamari, told AFP that “someone entered the church with a weapon” and began to shoot, then the faithful “tried to stop it before he was exploded”.
«Saper la coexistence»
The UN emissary for Syria, Geir Pedersen, expressed “his indignation” and called the authorities to conduct an in -depth investigation. The American emissary for Syria, Tom Barrack, denounced “an act of cowardice” which has no place “in the new society of tolerance and inclusion that Syrians are weaving”.
Turkish diplomacy, close to the new Syrian authorities, denounced a “treacherous attack” aimed at “sowing chaos”. For the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “this criminal act which targeted Christian faithful is a desperate attempt to undermine national coexistence and to destabilize the country”.
But the Orthodox Patriarchate of Damascus urged the new Islamist authorities to “assume full responsibility” of the attack, urging them to ensure “the inviolability of churches and the protection of all nationals” in the country.
“Reaching civil peace”
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said “specialized teams” had started investigating. “These terrorist acts will not stop the efforts of the Syrian state to achieve civil peace,” he said.
In a recent interview, Anas Khattab said that the Islamic State group had opted for “specific attacks on strategic targets” and announced that attempts at attacks by the jihadist group against Christian and Shiite communities had been thwarted. In May, the Islamic State group claimed its first attack on the new Syrian government forces.
The authorities also said in May that they have arrested members of an Islamic State group near Damascus, accused of preparing attacks, while another operation in Aleppo, northern Syria, resulted in the death of a security officer and three members of the jihadist group.
The Islamic State group had taken control of vast sides of the Syrian and Iraqi territories at the start of the civil war, which broke out in 2011, proclaiming the creation of a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014. The Syrian Kurdish forces supported by the United States defeated it in 2019, but the jihadists maintained a presence, in particular in the vast Syrian desert.
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