A suicide bomber killed nearly 30 people at worship at Mar Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus on June 22, 2025. Photo: Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.
The devastating suicide bombing at Damascus’s Mar Elias Greek Orthodox Church on June 22, 2025, which claimed nearly 30 innocent lives during Sunday Divine Liturgy, has shattered any remaining illusions about the safety of Syria’s Christian minority under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former jihadist leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.
The attack occurred as 350 worshippers gathered for evening prayers on the Feast of All Antiochian Saints. The suicide bomber entered the packed church, opened fire on the congregation, then detonated an explosive vest at the church entrance. The blast scattered body parts throughout the sanctuary, with Syria Civil Defense photos showing the church’s interior in ruins, pews covered in debris and religious paintings stained with victims’ blood.
HTS splinter group claims responsibility
Within hours, the Syrian government blamed the attack on the Islamic State (ISIS). The next day, June 23, state media reported that Syrian authorities had arrested suspected ISIS operatives behind the attack.
However, it was a different group, “Saraya Ansar al-Sunna,” that claimed responsibility for the massacre. Saraya Ansar al-Sunna is a splinter group from the al-Qaeda linked organization that President al-Sharaa used to lead, HTS (Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham). The group stated that the attack was retaliation for Christians in Duweila, the neighborhood where Mar Elias Church stands, protesting against Muslims trying to convert them to Islam. The group declared that the new Syrian government is “apostate” and must be fought against.
According to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reporting from earlier this month, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna had previously claimed responsibility for assassination operations in the Hama and Homs countryside, targeting Alawite civilians.
Al-Sharaa’s hollow response
In a statement released the day after the attack, President Ahmed al-Sharaa declared: “We promise that we will work night and day, mobilizing all our specialized security agencies, to capture all those who participated in and planned this heinous crime and to bring them to justice.”
President Ahmed al-Sharaa assumed the presidency of Syria after overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Although during the civil war, al-Sharaa’s forces carried out several attacks on Syrian Christians, since the fall of Assad, al-Sharaa has promised to protect Syria’s Christian population.
However, only one member of the Syrian government has so far visited the church to express her condolences – Hind Kabawat, the Minister for Social and Labour Affairs, who is a Christian. President al-Sharaa has refrained from referring to the victims of the attack as “martyrs” or directly expressing his condolences. These slights have not gone unnoticed in Syria, given that some extremist Muslims forbid their followers from mourning the deaths of non-Muslims.
Despite President al-Sharaa’s personal condolence call to Bishop Romanos Al-Hanath, the Greek Orthodox Church’s patriarchal vicar, Christian leaders expressed skepticism about the state’s commitment to protecting their community. In the aftermath of the church bombing, a video posted on “X” captured a tense exchange between Bishop al-Hanath and a Syrian General Security Directorate official.
In his address at the funeral service for the victims, Patriarch John X Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria boldly challenged President al-Sharaa’s weak response.
“This is not enough,” he said. “We appreciate the phone call, but the crime that took place is greater and deserves more than just a call.”
“It is important for us to know who stands behind this heinous act,” he continued. “While that matters greatly to us, what matters even more is to emphasize—and I will say it plainly—that the government bears full responsibility.”
Foreign fighter threat continues
The Damascus church bombing by an HTS splinter group suggests deep internal security challenges, as al-Sharaa faces opposition from within his own former coalition who view his diplomatic engagement with the West as apostasy.
Al-Sharaa’s continued reliance on thousands of foreign jihadist fighters poses an ongoing threat to Christian communities. These militants, recruited from Europe, Central Asia, and across the Middle East, maintain extremist anti-Christian ideologies that directly contradict al-Sharaa’s public promises of tolerance.
These fighters have been implicated in numerous abuses since the fall of Assad, including attempts to force Islamic law on unwilling civilians. They also played a key role in the massacre of thousands of Alawite Muslim civilians in Syria’s coastal region in March.
In the wake of the bombing, a Syrian Christian woman shared with CSI that supporters of the Islamic State are now operating openly across Syria, intimidating Christian families and their children in the streets. “They are the new masters and want a Syria without Christians, without Alawites, without Druze. We are defenseless,” she said.
International Response: Condemnation without protection
While international condemnation has been swift and comprehensive, it remains largely symbolic. The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen expressed “outrage at this heinous crime” and demanded a “full investigation and action by authorities.” Multiple nations—including Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Israel, Greece, Cyprus, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and numerous European countries – issued formal condemnations.
Nevertheless, al-Sharaa continues to enjoy international legitimacy, despite his terrorist designation and mounting evidence of minority persecution. His meeting with President Trump in May 2025, Trump’s decision later that month to suspend the anti-terrorism sanctions on al-Sharaa, and ongoing diplomatic engagement with the European Union send mixed signals about the international community’s commitment to protecting Syria’s minorities.
Syria’s vanishing Christians
The church bombing strikes a Christian community already facing demographic extinction. Syria’s Christian population has plummeted from approximately 1.5-2 million before 2011 (10% of the population) to fewer than 300,000 today (under 2%), as Christians fled civil war, jihadist attacks and economic collapse brought on by sanctions. It is one of the most catastrophic religious demographic collapses in modern Middle Eastern history.
This exodus has accelerated under al-Sharaa’s rule as Christians face a multitude of pressures that have made their situation increasingly untenable. They experience daily intimidation from extremist groups and government-allied militias, creating an atmosphere of constant fear and uncertainty. Evidence of this harassment has emerged on social media, where users have posted images of threatening messages specifically targeting Christians. These include slogans painted on cars and distributed through flyers with menacing language such as “Cross-worshiper: we are watching you” and “Cross-worshiper: Convert to Islam or pay Jizya.”
The Damascus church bombing serves as a tragic reminder that cosmetic political transformations cannot mask underlying ideological commitments. Al-Sharaa’s journey from Abu Mohammad al-Jolani to President of Syria represents, in the view of many Syrians, a rebranding exercise, not a positive change.
