A suicide attack killed at least 22 people in Damascus on Sunday, according to the latest report from the de facto authorities, who accused a member of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist organization of carrying it out.
The United Nations and many countries, including the United States, France and Greece, condemned the attack, the first of its kind suffered by the Syrian capital since forces led by radical Islamists overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024.
Security is among the most serious challenges for the new Syrian authorities, who are being called upon by the international community to protect minorities and include them in the political transition process.
The Foreign Ministry in Damascus reported that the perpetrator, who "belonged to the terrorist organization Daesh" (ed. abbreviation for IS in Arabic), entered the church of Saint Elias, in the Duella neighborhood of Damascus, "opened fire" and then "detonated explosives" with which he was belted.
In front of the church, Umm George, tearful, searched for her child, who was there when the gunman broke in. “My son prays in this church,” she explained. “I’m trying to find him but his cell phone is off and I haven’t been able to find him. I’m afraid I’ll never hear his voice again,” she sighed.
AFP correspondents saw ambulances removing worshippers from the church, where debris and icons were scattered everywhere, covered in blood.
According to the latest Health Ministry tally cited by the official SANA news agency last night, the attack left 22 dead and 63 wounded.
Lawrence Maamari, an eyewitness, said that "someone entered the church with a gun" and began shooting indiscriminately. When worshippers "tried to stop him," he detonated the explosives he had strapped to his waist.
ISIS, which had seized vast swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014 amid a civil war that broke out in 2011, had declared the creation of a “caliphate” in both countries. Under attack from multiple directions, its “caliphate” collapsed in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but its members continue to operate mainly from the vast Syrian desert.
In May, it claimed responsibility for the first attack against Syria's new de facto authorities.
The authorities then announced that they had arrested members of an ISIS cell near Damascus, who were allegedly preparing new attacks, while in another operation in Aleppo (north), a member of the security forces and three members of the jihadist organization were killed.
Source: skai.gr
