Damascus, July 16 (SANA)Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that the (ISIS) terrorist group carried out the June 2025 bombing of Mar Elias Church in Damascus as part of a broader strategy to undermine social cohesion and incite public opinion against Syria’s new government, adding that security forces had also foiled a parallel plot targeting the Sayyida Zainab shrine.

The attack onMar Elias Churchin the Al-Dweilaa neighborhood ofDamascuson June 22, 2025, killed 25 civilians and wounded 63 others.

In a recorded statement released by the ministry, Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen.Abdul Qader Tahansaid ISIS exploited the security vacuum that followed Syria’s liberation to move fighters from the Syrian desert into urban areas after the collapse of the deposed regime’s security and military institutions. He said the group also seized weapons and explosives from abandoned stockpiles, enabling it to launch attacks during the early post-liberation period.

Tahan said ISIS had primarily targeted revolutionary and opposition factions before Syria’s liberation, with about 99% of its operations directed against those groups. He said no attacks against religious communities had been documented in areas previously held by the opposition.

He said the group later shifted its strategy following the integration of military factions into the Ministry of Defense and the rebuilding of Syria’s security institutions, turning its focus to attacks on other components of Syrian society.

According to Tahan, ISIS sought to target Shiite worshippers at the Sayyida Zainab shrine and Christians at sites including Mar Elias Church in Damascus in an attempt to inflame sectarian tensions and erode public confidence in the country’s new authorities.

Tahan said theInterior Ministryand the Intelligence Service had strengthened counterterrorism operations and disrupted ISIS financing networks, adding that about 1,300 suspected ISIS members, including senior leaders, had been arrested and 34 ISIS cells dismantled in recent months.

He added that ISIS cells had also carried out attacks against Syrian state institutions, including an assault on a customs patrol between Idlib and Aleppo. Authorities dismantled the cell responsible and arrested its members, while other cells linked to assassination operations along Syria’s coast had also been broken up.