{"id":194636,"date":"2026-07-07T17:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/194636\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T17:14:09","slug":"blasts-in-damascus-injure-18-during-macrons-syria-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/194636\/","title":{"rendered":"Blasts in Damascus injure 18 during Macron\u2019s Syria visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Loading the Audio Player&#8230;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Two explosions in Damascus, Syria, wounded 18 people on Tuesday, including four police officers, <a href=\"https:\/\/sana.sy\/en\/politics\/2327887\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">according<\/a> to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA. The blasts reportedly occurred near the Four Seasons Hotel where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during his official visit, but they were located outside his security perimeter, according to SANA. Macron continued his visit according to schedule, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EmmanuelMacron\/status\/2074429009329308088\" rel=\"nofollow\">writing<\/a> on social media that Syrians demonstrated courage and determination in their response to the incident.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Syrian authorities said two improvised explosive devices placed in a parked vehicle and nearby trash bin near the Ministry of Tourism were the sources of the blasts. Syrian security forces learned of the devices, but were unable to defuse them before they exploded, according to SANA. <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/LizHurra\/status\/2074490136742502748\" rel=\"nofollow\">Videos<\/a> circulating on social media showed a vehicle burning from the first explosion before a second, more powerful blast ripped through the area.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign ministry <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/KSAmofaEN\/status\/2074456368581320809\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> that a terrorist cell was responsible for the attack, but didn\u2019t give further details. No group had officially claimed responsibility as of Tuesday morning. The explosions came less than a week after a <a href=\"https:\/\/sana.sy\/en\/politics\/2327376\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bombing attack<\/a> at a Damascus cafe near a government building, which killed 10 and injured 21.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What is Macron doing in Syria? He came to express his commitment to Syria and his interest in helping the country become peaceful, stable, and united in diversity, he <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EmmanuelMacron\/status\/2074175478227669488\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a>. France and the European Union would help rebuild and develop Syria as a regional hub, he <a href=\"https:\/\/m.youtube.com\/watch?v=j-f3yktrZvY&amp;pp=0gcJCWQCo7VqN5tD&amp;ra=m\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" class=\"no-audio-native\">Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/wng.org\/sift\/trump-plans-to-lift-turkey-sanctions-pondering-f-35-sale-1783436945\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> on U.S. plans to remove sanctions on Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loading the Audio Player&#8230; Two explosions in Damascus, Syria, wounded 18 people on Tuesday, including four police officers,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[29207,57832,8031,3067,16820,1215,57833,559,1376,95,14411,545,3862],"class_list":["post-194636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-ahmad","tag-ahmed","tag-al-sharaa","tag-attacks","tag-bomb","tag-bombing","tag-emmanuel","tag-international","tag-macron","tag-syria","tag-terror","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116879822837308833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194636","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=194636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}