Terrorist Splinter Group Claims Responsibility for Damascus Bombing

At the funeral of the martyrs of the attack in Damascus, on June 24, 2025. Photo: Ghaith Alsayed/AP

DAMASCUS — On June 24, 2025, the terrorist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the deadly suicide bombing at St. Elias Church in Damascus on June 22, 2025.

The latest local reports put the death toll at 25 and the number injured at 63.

The terrorist group was created earlier this year when it splintered from Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the jihadist group which several prominent members of the new Syrian government have ties to.

Over the past several months, the splinter group has claimed responsibility for several terrorist attacks in the region, including involvement in massacres of the Alawite community back in March which are said to have killed as many as 1,700.

Interestingly, on June 23, 2025, Syria’s interim government claimed that ISIS was responsible for the attack, and that six arrests and two deaths took place when authorities “seized explosives, suicide vests, mines and ammunition during raids,” according to reporting from dw.com. 

However, ISIS never claimed responsibility for the attack, despite having a history of immediately doing so following large operations such as the bombing of the Orthodox community in Damascus.

In a post on Telegram, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said the attack was triggered by a “provocation by the Christians of Damascus.”

The statement, translated into English, reads:

Following a provocation by the Christians of Damascus against the call (to Islam) and the people of the faith – a provocation that went beyond mere insinuation to outright declaration, beyond jest to seriousness – in which they transgressed against the foundations of the daʿwa (Islamic mission) and violated the sanctity of the faith, exchanging gratitude for blessings with denial, and replacing sound reason with the recklessness of desire – our martyr brother, Muhammad Zayn al-Abidin Abu Uthman (may God accept him), proceeded to carry out a bombing of the Church of Mar Elias in the Al-Dweilaa neighborhood of Damascus, resulting in dozens of dead and wounded.

We affirm that what was published by the media of the Jolani government is false, fabricated, unsupported by any evidence, and irrational. It is nothing but a feeble insult to the minds of the people of Damascus and a desperate attempt to sow illusions in a time when few are left to be deceived.

By the grace of God, we are in a state of well-being and empowerment, in calm that is not shaken by the rumors of alarmists nor diminished by the nonsense of slanderers. Whoever thinks that falsehood can triumph through a lie has been betrayed by his judgment and deluded by his tongue.

And we affirm – clearly and definitively – that what is coming will neither spare you nor have mercy on your heedlessness. Our soldiers – both martyrdom-seekers and inghimasi (suicide attack) fighters – are fully prepared, in equipment and numbers, with resolve unshaken and ranks that know no retreat. Whoever seeks salvation, the door of repentance remains open – let him hasten before it is closed. For when we advance, we do not look back; and when we move, we do not delay.

According to dw.com, a dispute took place at the church back in March when residents complained about Islamic chants being blasted from a car in front of the building.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the June 22, 2025, attack was the first in a Christian church since the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011.

Previously, UOJ reported on the Trisagion prayers and funeral for the new martyrs of Damascus, as well as His Beatitude Patriarch John X’s comments directed at the new Syrian government.

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