Shadowy extremist group claims Damascus church attack

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BEIRUT — A little-known Sunni Muslim extremist group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a weekend suicide attack on a Damascus church, as the city mourned those killed.

Sunday’s attack killed 25 people and wounded dozens, striking terror into Syria’s Christian community and other minorities.

A statement from Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said an operative “blew up the Saint Elias church in the Dwelaa neighbourhood of Damascus”, adding that it came after unspecified “provocation”.

The Islamist authorities who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December had quickly blamed the attack on the Islamic State group and announced several arrests on Monday in a security operation against IS-affiliated cells.

IS did not claim responsibility for the attack.

The Saraya Ansar al-Sunna statement, on messaging app Telegram, said the government’s version of events was “untrue, fabricated”.

The group, which was formed after Assad’s ouster, vowed that “what is coming will not give you respite” warning that “our soldiers… are fully prepared”.

At the funeral of some of those killed in Damascus’s Holy Cross Church, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X called the attack an “unacceptable incident”.

‘Heinous crime’

Addressing interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the patriarch said “the heinous crime that took place at Mar Elias Church is the first massacre of its kind in Syria since 1860”, referring to the mass killings of Christians in Damascus under the Ottoman Empire.

“We refuse for these events to take place during the revolution and during your honourable era.”

Sharaa had called the patriarchate’s adviser to send condolences, an act John X called “insufficient”.

To ululations and tears, nine white coffins were carried into the church, amidst a heavy security presence in the area.

“These events are fleeting and have no value in history,” teacher Raji Rizkallah, 50, told AFP.

“Christianity is a deeply rooted and permanent part of this land, and extremists are heretics. They have no place in the present or the future.”

Assad’s government used to portray itself as a protector of minorities, who were subject to numerous attacks claimed by jihadist groups during the 14-year civil war.

In March, a dispute took place in front of the Saint Elias church, as residents expressed opposition to Islamic chants being played on loudspeakers from a car.

The suicide bombing followed sectarian violence in recent months, including massacres of members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs and clashes with Druze fighters, with security one of the new authorities’ greatest challenges.

The bloodshed has raised concerns about the government’s ability to control radical fighters, after Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) led the offensive that ousted Assad.

HTS was once affiliated with Al-Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016.

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Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Syria-based analyst and researcher, said Saraya Ansar al-Sunna could be “a pro-IS splinter originating primarily from defectors from HTS… and other factions but currently operating independently of IS”.

He also said it could be “just an IS front group”.

Citing a Saraya source, Tamimi said a disillusioned former HTS functionary heads the group, whose leadership includes a former member of Hurras al-Din, Syria’s Al-Qaeda affiliate which announced in January it was dissolving on the orders of the new government.

The Observatory said Saraya Ansar al-Sunna had previously threatened to target Alawites and had carried out an attack in Hama province earlier this year.

The group is accused of involvement in the sectarian massacres in March that the Observatory said killed more than 1,700 people, mostly Alawite civilians.