IS responsible for Damascus church bombing, say Syria government

Syria’s Interior Ministry have stated that so-called Islamic State were responsible for the church attack in Damascus, Syria, that killed 22 Christians in June 2025.

On 22 June 2025, Mar Elias Church in Damascus, Syria, was attacked by an armed suicide bomber who burst into the church and began shooting. Though church members Geryes, Bourton and Milad courageously tackled him to the ground, saving many people’s lives, there were still 22 Christians and three unidentified people killed in the attack.

This week, Syria’s Interior Ministry have publicly said that the attack was carried out by so-called Islamic State (IS). The Syria news agency SANA reports the government officials as saying that the attack was ‘part of a broader strategy to undermine social cohesion and incite public opinion against Syria’s new government’. The attack came only a few months after the transitional government took power in March 2025, following a caretaker government that was formed after the fall of the Assad regime. There had long been suspicions of IS’s involvement, but this statement from the Interior Ministry gives more clarity than previously.

Attack on Muslim site foiled

According to the statement, security forces also foiled an attack on Sayyida Zainab shrine, a holy place for the Shiite Muslims. SANA quoted the deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Abdul Qader Tahan saying: “IS exploited the security vacuum that followed Syria’s liberation to move fighters from the Syrian desert into urban areas after the collapse of the deposed regime’s security and military institutions.” He added that the group also seized weapons and explosives from abandoned stockpiles, enabling it to launch attacks during the early post-liberation period.

IS had shifted its strategy following the integration of military factions into the Ministry of Defence and the rebuilding of Syria’s security institutions, turning its focus to attacks on other parts of Syrian society – including places of worship.

Attempts to undermine Syria

It is believed that their attack on Mar Elias Church and the planned attack on the Sayyida Zainab shrine were intended to inflame sectarian tensions and erode public confidence in the country’s new authorities.

Tahan said the authorities had strengthened counterterrorism operations and disrupted IS financing networks. About 1,300 suspected IS members, including senior leaders, have now been arrested and 34 IS cells dismantled in recent months.

Despite these security achievements, Christians in Syria remain cautious – still unsure what the new regime will mean for their long-term religious freedoms as a faith minority in the country, and vulnerable to further attacks by extremist groups. Please keep praying for our brothers and sisters.