A suicide bomber attacked a Greek Orthodox Church service in Syria’s capital on Sunday, killing at least 20 people and underscoring the new government’s challenge to maintain stability after more than a decade of civil war.
The Syrian authorities said the assailant had opened fire on congregants at the Mar Elias Church in Dweila, a neighborhood of Damascus, before detonating an explosive vest. More than 50 people were wounded.
The attacker appeared to have ties to the Islamic State, the extremist group that once controlled large areas of Syria, the authorities said. It was the first known suicide bombing in the capital since December, when a rebel coalition ousted Syria’s iron-fisted president, Bashar al-Assad, and took power.
Syria’s new leadership has vowed to restore order and has sought to reassure embattled religious minorities. But sectarian tensions have festered, and for months, the United Nations and U.S. officials have warned that remnants of the Islamic State are seeking to exploit the collapse of the Assad regime to regroup.
The Syrian authorities say they have foiled repeated attack plots in recent months, including some targeting Christian sites.
On Sunday, witnesses to the church bombing described a scene of carnage, with ambulances and local residents rushing to Mar Elias to help. Photos circulated by the state news media showed charred and blood-splattered floors, with shrapnel peppered across the church’s walls.
“When we got to the church, we found the doorway filled with body parts — civilians, young and old,” said Melatious Shataha, 35, a priest at a nearby congregation who was among the first to arrive after the blast.
Some witnesses reported seeing more than one attacker, although Syrian officials have yet to confirm those accounts.
“I was at the gate of the church, and we saw the perpetrator opening fire,” said Elie Tatros, 55, who works nearby. “My son wanted to jump in and stop him, but I grabbed him. The other one turned to shoot at us.”
The scene quickly turned chaotic.
“We saw the fire engulfing everything in front of us,” Mr. Tatros said. “People scattered and began running all over the place.”
Security forces sealed off the area, and an investigation is underway, the authorities said.
Syrian officials moved swiftly to condemn the bombing, which threatened to undermine the fragile campaign for peace by the government, which is headed by a former rebel leader, Ahmed al-Shara.
Since President Trump announced the lifting of longstanding American sanctions against Syria in May, the country’s new leaders have sought to open it to investors and rebuild international ties. But efforts to project normalcy have frequently been disrupted by spasms of violence.
After the church bombing, the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, said in a post on social media, “These terrible acts of cowardice have no place in the new tapestry of integrated tolerance and inclusion that Syrians are weaving.”
The 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.”
Euan Ward is a reporter contributing to The Times from Beirut.
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