At least 22 killed, 59 injured in suicide bombing at Damascus church

DAMASCUS, Syria — At least 22 people were killed and 59 injured in an attack inside a church in Damascus, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Health Ministry.

The Interior Ministry said a suicide bomber affiliated with the Islamic State terror group had entered the St. Elias Church and opened fire, before detonating his explosive vest.

In a post on X, Interior Minister Anas Khattab said: “These terrorist acts will not deter the Syrian state’s efforts to achieve civil peace, nor will they deter Syrians from their choice to unite in the face of all those who seek to undermine their stability and security.”

“Treacherous hands committed a cowardly terrorist act targeting civilians performing their religious rituals,” Raed Saleh, Minister of Disaster Management and Emergency Response, said.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has put the death toll at 19, saying dozens were injured. The UK-based monitoring group said security forces cordoned off the area after the attack.

Witnesses said ambulances transferred the victims and injured to a nearby hospital amid a heavy security presence.

“There was a funeral service and the church was full when a person entered and started shooting randomly at people and then blew himself up,” one eyewitness told dpa.

“We first heard a loud explosion and then we heard people screaming and running out of the church with blood covering their bodies,” a man who lives near the church said.

Blood and human remains littered the church following the attack, a member of a Syrian rescue team said.

Images broadcast by Syrian television showed the church partially destroyed.

The predominantly Christian neighborhood where the attack took place is home to several churches besides St. Elias, a Greek Orthodox church.

Minister of Information Hamza al-Mustafa described the attack as a “cowardly act.”

Al-Mustafa stressed “the state’s commitment to exert all efforts to combat criminal organizations.”

The Governor of Damascus, Maher Marwan, also condemned the attack, stressing that such acts will not deter the will of the state and society to continue on the path of stability and reconstruction.

“We reassure everyone that the competent security services are working with full capacity to uncover the circumstances of the incident, pursue the perpetrators, and bring them to justice so they may receive their just punishment,” he told SANA.

This is the first attack targeting Christians in Damascus since the fall of Syria’s long-time ruler Bashar Assad, who was overthrown by an Islamist-led rebel alliance commanded by current interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa in December.

Once an insurgent leader, al-Sharaa has since renounced both al-Qaeda and Islamic State. However, doubts remain as to whether he has fully abandoned extremist ideology.

Syria’s new leadership has been seeking to garner world recognition and economic support to rebuild the country following more than a decade of brutal civil war.

But recurring outbreaks of partly sectarian violence in recent months have fueled fears among the country’s Druze, Alawite and Christian minorities.