{"id":187953,"date":"2026-07-02T18:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/187953\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T18:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T18:27:09","slug":"bomb-blast-at-damascus-cafe-kills-six-syrian-state-media-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/187953\/","title":{"rendered":"Bomb blast at Damascus cafe kills six, Syrian state media say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A bomb blast at a crowded cafe in central Damascus has killed at least six people and injured 22 others, Syrian state media say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The interior ministry said an explosive device was planted inside the cafe, which is located only 100m (330ft) from the Palace of Justice, a major government building in the capital&#8217;s Hejaz district.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There was no immediate claim from any group for the attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It was the deadliest bombing in Damascus since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c307n9p43z9o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"elm:link;elmt:article_link;slk:a suicide attack on a church in June 2025 killed 25 people;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;a suicide attack on a church in June 2025 killed 25 people&quot;}\" class=\"link \">a suicide attack on a church in June 2025 killed 25 people<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A shadowy jihadist group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, said it was behind that bombing, but authorities blamed the Islamic State (IS) group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mohammed al-Dahabi, the owner of a glasses shop located next to the cafe, said Thursday&#8217;s bombing was reminiscent of those seen in Damascus during Syria&#8217;s civil war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I felt strong pressure, and the whole place shook,&#8221; he told the AFP news agency. &#8220;I ran to the place and saw people lying on the floor with blood pooled around them everywhere.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Graphic video footage posted on social media showed at least two men lying motionless on the floor of the cafe&#8217;s outdoor terrace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">During a visit to the scene, Damascus Governor Maher Marwan Idlibi said those responsible for the bloodshed would be punished.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Each time the country sees a period of stability, malicious parties try to destabilise it,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There have been several attacks in Damascus since Islamist-led rebel forces overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, ending 13 years of devastating civil war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has struggled to consolidate control over the whole country and restore security since he came to power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There have been several bouts of deadly sectarian fighting between government forces and members of Syria&#8217;s Alawite and Druze religious minorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bomb blast at a crowded cafe in central Damascus has killed at least six people and injured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[56198,670,21860,53750,95,33944],"class_list":["post-187953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-crowded-cafe","tag-damascus","tag-explosive-device","tag-palace-of-justice","tag-syria","tag-syrian-state-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116851798339262933","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}