A terrorist in Syria killed at least 25 people in a suicide bombing of a church on the outskirts of Damascus at about 5 p.m. on Sunday (June 22), according to reports.
During the Sunday service of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Dweil’a area, a gunman first opened fire on the Mar Elias Church congregation and then detonated an explosive vest when members tried to stop him, reports said. Another 63 people were wounded in the attack, which Syrian Interior Ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba suggested was mounted by an Islamic State (IS) member, though no group claimed responsibility for the carnage.
IS has maintained a low-level insurgency in Syria since the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa took power in December, though the suicide bombing was reportedly the first violence in or near Damascus.
“The security of places of worship is a red line,” Al-Baba said, adding that IS and remnants of the ousted government of Bashar al-Assad were still trying to destabilize Syria, according to the AP.
Al-Sharaa, whose Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), is a former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria and is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.N., the United States and the United Kingdom, has pledged to protect religious and ethnic minorities.
Al-Sharaa’s group has been fighting IS for years, first as breakaway jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra and then Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) beginning in 2013, “and on all fronts since toppling the Assad regime last year,” according to think tank the Washington Institute.
The blast at the entryway into the church resulted in the deaths of people within and outside of the building, which is reportedly not far from the eastern Bab Sharqi gate of Damascus’s Old City.
Initially 22 people were reported killed, but state news agency SANA, citing the country’s Ministry of Health, stated on Monday (June 23) that the toll had risen to 25 and bodies were still being recovered, including those of children.
The Greek Orthodox Church reportedly called on Syria’s interim government to “assume full responsibility.”
“The treacherous hand of evil struck this evening, claiming our lives, along with the lives of our loved ones who fell today as martyrs during the evening divine liturgy,” the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch said in a statement.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said in a statement, “These terrorist acts will not stop the efforts of the Syrian state in achieving civil peace.”
Condemning the attack, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, urged Syrians “to unite in rejecting terrorism, extremism, incitement and the targeting of any community,” according to the BBC.
IS, which once held 34,000 square miles of territory from western Syria to eastern Iraq, has long targeted Christians and other religious minorities in Syria. The U.N. has warned that the IS and its affiliates still pose a threat despite military defeat in 2019, according to the BBC.
“A report published in February warned that the group might take advantage of the transition in Syria to surge attacks and make the country a renewed hub for recruiting foreign fighters,” the BBC reported, noting that IS has between 1,500 and 3,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.
All Arab News reported that other Christian sites were attacked at about the same time, though none have been confirmed: a suicide bomber targeting the Deir Ibrahim al-Khalil Monastery also near Damascus, other terrorists placing explosive devices near the door of the Church of Our Lady in Maqsura, and “several churches” in Homs and Hama receiving gunshot.
“Leaflets were also posted on the doors of these churches reading, ‘Your turn is coming,’” the outlet reported.
Syrian officials last month reported killing three IS militants and arresting four others in raids in Aleppo.
Syria ranked 18th on Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.
