Iraqi ISIS suspect tied to Damascus church bombing
Shafaq News – Damascus
One of the suspects arrested in connection with the suicide bombing at Mar Elias Church in Damascus is an Iraqi national who previously resided in al-Hol camp, the Syrian daily al-Watan reported on Thursday.
The newspaper said it had obtained internal documents from the distribution of heating fuel in the camp, located in Syria's northeastern Hasakah province near the Iraqi border. Among the listed recipients of humanitarian aid provided by the NGO Blumont in November 2023 was a man named Kinan Ali bin Ramadan, identified as an Iraqi citizen and resident of al-Hol.
His name appeared as number 15 on the aid list and, according to the report, matches one of the individuals recently detained by Syria's Interior Ministry for alleged involvement in the bombing—an attack attributed to an ISIS-affiliated cell.
The revelation contradicted a statement issued a day earlier by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who rejected claims that the attackers came from al-Hol. 'The statements made by the ministry's spokesperson regarding suicide bombers coming from al-Hol are inaccurate and lack factual basis,' the SDF said.
The group added that its own investigation found no unauthorized exits from the camp during the time in question, aside from Syrian nationals transferred at Damascus' request and Iraqi nationals repatriated through formal coordination with Baghdad.
The SDF also stressed that al-Hol camp houses mostly women and children from families affiliated with ISIS and does not contain foreign combatants—casting doubt, they said, on the claim that non-Syrian suicide bombers could have emerged from within its confines.
In a press briefing earlier this week, Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba said Syrian security forces had dismantled the ISIS cell responsible for the Mar Elias bombing and prevented a second planned attack targeting the Sayyida Zainab shrine, a key Shiite pilgrimage site south of Damascus.
According to al-Baba, the cell was led by Mohammed Abdul Ilah al-Jumaili, known by his nom de guerre Abu Imad al-Jumaili and referred to within ISIS ranks as Wali al-Sahra (Governor of the Desert). He was reportedly based in al-Hajar al-Aswad district, south of the capital.
The ministry said al-Jumaili facilitated the infiltration of two non-Syrian suicide bombers into Damascus from al-Hol, exploiting what it described as "security gaps" in the vast desert areas of central Syria.
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