DAMASCUS: The death toll from an attack on a church in Syria has gone up to 25, state media said Monday. The attack Sunday on the Mar Elias Greek Orthodox church during a Divine Liturgy in Dweil’a near Damascus was the first of its kind in Syria in years, and comes as Damascus under its de facto Islamist rule is trying to win the support of minorities. As President Ahmad al-Sharaa struggles to exert authority across the country, there have been concerns about the presence of sleeper cells of extremist groups in the war-torn country. The ministry and most witnesses said a gunman entered the church, and started firing at the people there before detonating his explosive vest.
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SANA, citing the Health Ministry, said 63 other people were wounded in the attack. Father Fadi Ghattas told The Associated Press after the attack that some 350 people were praying at the church. The United States, the European Union and governments across the Middle East condemned the attack, decrying it as a terrorist attack. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the Syrian Interior Minister has blamed the extremist Islamic State group. Since the toppling of Bashar Assad and his family’s decades-long dictatorial rule of Syria last December in a lightning insurgency, al-Sharaa has been pushing to win the support of Syria’s non-Sunni-Muslim minority groups who are concerned about life under Islamist rule.
