Sunni extremist group Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claims responsibility for a Damascus church bombing that killed 25, challenging the Syrian government’s assertion of ISIS involvement.
A little-known Sunni Muslim extremist group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, has claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide attack on a church in Damascus that killed 25 people and wounded dozens on Sunday, AFP reports.
The Syrian government, however, insists the group is an affiliate of the Islamic State (ISIS).
The attack, which struck the Saint Elias Church in the Dwelaa neighborhood, has sent shockwaves through Syria’s Christian community and other minorities. Saraya Ansar al-Sunna stated via the messaging app Telegram that an operative “blew up the Saint Elias church in the Dwelaa neighbourhood of Damascus” following an unspecified “provocation.”
Syria’s new Islamist authorities, who took power in December after ousting Bashar Al-Assad, swiftly blamed ISIS for the bombing and announced several arrests in a security operation targeting ISIS-affiliated cells. ISIS has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Nureddine al-Baba, spokesman for the interior ministry, asserted that the cell responsible for the attack “officially follows Daesh,” using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. He further claimed that Saraya Ansar al-Sunna was “not independent… as it follows Daesh.”
Baba also revealed that the church attacker was not Syrian and had arrived in Damascus with another suicide bomber from the al-Hol camp in the northeast, known for housing displaced people and relatives of ISIS members.
Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Syria-based analyst, suggested Saraya Ansar al-Sunna could be “a pro-ISIS splinter originating primarily from defectors from HTS… and other factions but currently operating independently of IS.”
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the Islamist group, formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda, that led the overthrow of Assad and is now headed by Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Sharaa has been critical of ISIS in the past, describing its self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq as “illegitimate”.
Despite the fact that HTS is labeled a terrorist organization by many Western governments, the US lifted the bounty that was placed on Al-Sharaa after he led the ouster of Assad.
Last month, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States will lift sanctions on Syria, following the fall of the Assad regime.
