‘Why us?' Syrian Christians ask after suicide bombing
DAMASCUS: Syrian Christians were struggling on Monday to understand why their community was targeted in a suicide attack and whether they can rely on the Islamist-led government's assurances of protection. Syria's health ministry said the toll from Sunday's attack on the Mar Elias Church in the Dweila neighborhood had risen to 25 dead and more than 60 wounded. The interior ministry said the suicide bomber was a member of Islamic State who entered the church, opened fire and detonated an explosive vest. There was no claim of responsibility by the Islamic State group.
On Monday, funeral announcements were posted on the door of the church. Members of the security forces stood outside it and other churches. 'I wonder why they target us. We had no interest in any of the events that happened in our country. We have no interests besides Syria living in peace,' said Bassim Khoury, a Christian resident of Damascus. 'We did not carry weapons, we did not stand against anyone. We did not ask for government positions. None of us wants to become president, no one wants to run the government... Why would this happen to this peaceful people?'
The attack fed fears among Syria's minorities that their communities are more exposed to attacks and harassment since Islamist-led rebels toppled former leader Bashar al-Assad in December. In March, hundreds of Alawites - the minority from which Assad hails - were killed in Syria's coastal provinces and dozens were kidnapped and killed in Damascus. In May, an armed raid on a Damascus nightclub and the killing of a woman at another venue led some bars to close. Christian residents of Damascus told Reuters that Muslim sheikhs had come to their neighborhoods in the last six months to urge them to convert to Islam and to stop consuming alcohol.
The violence has prompted questions about whether Syria's new rulers have full control over armed elements despite promises by Interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa - formerly a member of Al-Qaeda - to rule inclusively for all of the diverse religious and ethnic groups. 'We're in a country that must protect everyone,' said Jean Bahri, another Christian resident of Damascus.
Nibras Youssef, from Dweila, said people has already been on edge over the security situation, in which armed men and boys who said they were official security force members produced no relevant identification papers. 'You see a 13-year-old holding a weapon and you cannot say anything to them,' said Youssef. Sharaa expressed his condolences, calling Sunday's attack a 'criminal bombing that hurt the whole Syrian people'. Several Syrian ministers, as well as church leaders and other foreign officials, condemned the attacks. Candlelit vigils and church services were held elsewhere in Syria in solidarity with the parishioners at Mar Elias. — Reuters
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Kuwait Times
27 minutes ago
- Kuwait Times
UK sees record asylum claims as row brews over housing
More than 111,000 people applied for asylum in the UK in the first half of 2025 LONDON: Britain is grappling with its highest-ever number of asylum applications, official data showed Thursday, as a political storm brews over the temporary housing of thousands of migrants in hotels. Immigration is a thorny issue in the UK, where Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is struggling to stem rising support for a hard-right party led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage. His Reform UK campaigners are tapping into anger over record numbers of undocumented migrants making the dangerous crossing the Channel from France to England small boats. A total of 111,084 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025, according to figures released by the Home Office, the UK's interior ministry. That was the highest for any 12-month period since current records began in 2001. Farage said Britain's "streets are becoming more dangerous yet this disaster gets worse". The government has insisted it is "restoring order" to the asylum system. "We have strengthened Britain's visa and immigration controls, cut asylum costs and sharply increased enforcement and returns," said interior minister Yvette Cooper. The statistics showed that while asylum claims are up, officials are processing those applications faster than before as they seek to clear a backlog. At the end of June, some 91,000 people were awaiting a decision, down 24 percent on the previous year, the Home Office said. Hotel ban Starmer's government views clearing the backlog of cases as essential to fulfilling its pledge to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament in 2029. Under a 1999 law, the interior ministry "is required to provide accommodation and subsistence support to all destitute asylum seekers whilst their asylum claims are being decided". But the use of hotels, which hit peak levels under the previous centre-right Conservative government, costs Britain billions of pounds — and they also have become flashpoints for sometimes violent protests. The Home Office data showed that 32,059 migrants were staying in hotels at the end of June. That is an eight-percent increase on the same month last year — just before Starmer became prime minister — but well below the high of 56,042, recorded at the end of September 2023. Labour has said the use of migrant hotels has fallen from a high of 400 two years ago to around 230 presently. Thursday's figures also showed that spending on asylum had fallen 12 percent from £5.38 billion in 2023/24 to £4.76 billion in 2024/25. More than 50,000 people have crossed the Channel since Starmer became UK leader in July last year, including almost 28,000 this year — a record since data began in 2018 for this stage of a year. The Home Office data showed that irregular arrivals soared 27 percent on the previous year, with 88 percent of those coming by small boats. Starmer's government has signed several agreements with countries as it tries to break up gangs of people-smugglers facilitating the crossings. It penned a new returns deal with Iraq this week and has struck a "one-in, one-out" pilot programme with Paris, which allows Britain to send some small-boats arrivals back to France. On Tuesday, a high court judge temporarily blocked the housing of asylum seekers at a hotel near London following protests after a resident there was charged with sexual assault. Several Reform-led councils have vowed to seek similar injunctions which, if granted, would pose a major logistical headache for the government. — AFP
Arab Times
9 hours ago
- Arab Times
Islamic State extremists exploit instability in Africa and Syria: UN experts
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 21, (AP): Islamic State extremists are exploiting instability in Africa and Syria and remain a significant threat in Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe, UN counterterrorism experts said Wednesday. The militant group is now using advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence, and social media, which poses a new challenge, the experts told a UN Security Council meeting. The Islamic State group declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that left tens of thousands of people dead and cities in ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries and it has affiliates and supporters in many other countries. The UN has seen a resurgence of activity by the Islamic State in the Sahel - in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - and in West Africa the group has emerged "as a prolific producer of terrorist propaganda and attracted foreign terrorist fighters, primarily from within the region,' said Vladimir Voronkov, who heads the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism. He said arrests in Libya have revealed logistics and financing networks with connections to IS in the Sahel. In Somalia, Voronkov said, a large-scale IS attack was countered by Somali security forces and some 200 IS fighters were killed and over 150 arrested. But he said despite the losses IS still benefits from regional support networks and remains a threat. In northcentral Africa's Lake Chad Basin region, the Islamic State is "increasingly receiving foreign material and human support to conduct its operations, including money, drones and expertise on improvised explosive devices,' said Natalia Gherman, who heads the executive directorate of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee. "Its ability to adapt and exploit instability continues to pose significant challenges, particularly in parts of Africa,' she said. "The continent bears over half the world's fatalities from terrorist attacks.' In the Middle East, Voronkov said IS is active in Iraq and Syria, where it is trying to restore its operations in the northwest Badia desert region and renew effort to destabilize local authorities.
Kuwait Times
16 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Zionists approve Gaza City conquest, W Bank settlement
GAZA/JERUSALEM: The Zionist defense minister approved a plan on Wednesday for the conquest of Gaza City and authorized the call-up of around 60,000 reservists, piling pressure on Hamas as mediators push for a ceasefire. Defense Minister Israel Katz's move, confirmed to AFP by a spokesperson, came as mediators awaited an official Zionist response on their latest proposal in ceasefire talks. While mediator Qatar had expressed guarded optimism over the latest proposal, a senior Zionist official said the government stood firm on its call for the release of all hostages in any agreement. The framework that Hamas had approved proposes an initial 60-day truce, a staggered hostage release, the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners and provisions allowing for the entry of aid into Gaza. In the West Bank, the Zionist entity on Wednesday approved a major settlement project in an area that the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority swiftly condemned the approval 'in the strongest terms', saying it entrenched division in the territory. On the ground in Gaza City on Wednesday, Mustafa Qazzaat, head of the emergency committee in the Gaza municipality, described the situation as 'catastrophic', with 'large numbers' fleeing eastern neighborhoods. One resident, Anis Daloul, 64, said the Zionist military had 'destroyed most of the buildings in Zeitoun and displaced thousands of people'. The Zionist entity's security cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the plan to conquer Gaza City in early August, sparking fears it would worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza. According to Zionist media reports, Netanyahu has not yet called a security cabinet meeting to discuss any response to the latest truce proposal. GAZA: Palestinians rush for cover as smoke billows after a Zionist strike on a building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Aug 20, 2025. - AFP Netanyahu has come under growing pressure at home and abroad to end the war, with the German government saying on Wednesday that it 'rejects the escalation' of the Zionist entity's campaign. French President Emmanuel Macron said the offensive 'can only lead to a complete disaster for both peoples', warning it would 'drag the region into a permanent war'. Katz's approval of plans to conquer Gaza City came days after Hamas said it had accepted the latest proposal from mediators for a ceasefire to halt almost two years of devastating war. Sources from Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad told AFP on Wednesday that the proposal envisages the release of 10 hostages and 18 bodies from Gaza. The remaining captives would be released in a second exchange within the 60-day period, during which negotiations for a permanent ceasefire would take place, the sources said. A Zionist military official told journalists on Wednesday that the new phase of combat would involve 'a gradual precise and targeted operation in and around Gaza City', including some areas where forces had not previously operated. Gaza's civil defense agency said Zionist strikes and fire killed at least 25 people across the territory on Wednesday. The Zionist military said it killed 10 Hamas militants in southern Gaza on Wednesday while repelling an attack by the armed wing of the Islamist group, which claimed it killed several Zionist soldiers. The Zionist offensive in Gaza has killed at least 62,122 Palestinians, most of them civilians. Meanwhile, the Zionist entity approved a major settlement project on Wednesday in an area of the occupied West Bank that the international community has warned threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state. The Zionist entity has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12-square-kilometre parcel known as E1 just east of Jerusalem, but the plan had been stalled for years amid international opposition. Critics say the settlement would effectively cut the West Bank in two, undermining hopes for a contiguous Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. Last week, Zionist far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed plans to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive tract of land, which lies between Jerusalem and the Zionist settlement of Maale Adumim. 'I am pleased to announce that just a short while ago, the civil administration approved the planning for the construction of the E1 neighborhood,' the mayor of Maale Adumim, Guy Yifrach, said in a statement Wednesday. The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority swiftly slammed the move. 'This undermines the chances of implementing the two-state solution, establishing a Palestinian state on the ground, and fragments its geographic and demographic unity,' the PA's foreign ministry said in a statement. It added the move would entrench 'division of the occupied West Bank into isolated areas and cantons that are disconnected from one another, turning them into something akin to real prisons, where movement is only possible through (Zionist) checkpoints and under the terror of armed settler militias'. All of the Zionist entity's settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have Zionist planning permission. The Zionist entity heavily restricts the movement of West Bank Palestinians, who must obtain permits from authorities to travel through checkpoints to cross into east Jerusalem or the Zionist entity. King Abdullah II of Jordan on Wednesday also affirmed his country's rejection of the E1 project, saying 'the two-state solution is the only way to achieve a just and comprehensive peace'. UN chief Antonio Guterres warned last week that constructing Zionist homes in the E1 area would 'put an end to' hopes for a two-state solution to the Zionist-Palestinian conflict. Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at Ir Amim, an NGO focusing on Jerusalem within the context of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict, also condemned the move. 'Today's approval demonstrates how determined (the Zionist entity) is in pursuing what Minister Smotrich has described as a strategic program to bury the possibility of a Palestinian state and to effectively annex the West Bank,' he said. 'This is a conscious (Zionist) choice to implement an apartheid regime,' he added, calling on the international community to take urgent and effective measures against the move. Excluding east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Zionist settlers. – Agencies
