Syrian authorities said they had captured a cell linked to the Islamic State group and accused it of carrying out two bombings in central Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit. The blasts killed one person and wounded dozens near the Four Seasons Hotel.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said the people responsible were in custody. Ahmad Dalati, head of internal security for the Damascus region, told Syrian state television that preliminary investigations indicated the cell was affiliated with IS. The attribution was an official preliminary finding rather than a claim independently verified in the supplied report.
The interior ministry said the arrests followed simultaneous raids at several locations across Damascus and its countryside. Operations took place in four neighborhoods. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that dozens of people were arrested in Ish al-Warwar, a working-class suburb that had been majority Alawite before the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in late 2024. A resident told AFP that, to their knowledge, the arrests did not target Alawites as a community.
After questioning members of the alleged cell, authorities said they discovered a concealed store of explosives intended for a series of additional attacks. The evidence supplied did not describe the material recovered, identify the detainees or report whether charges had been filed.
The two bombs exploded on Tuesday near the hotel where Macron had stayed overnight. The interior ministry said one device had been placed in a rubbish container and another in a vehicle. They detonated after Macron left the building and shortly before state media announced his arrival at the presidential palace for talks with President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Macron continued the visit. At a joint news conference, he said such attacks should not destabilize the country and reaffirmed French support. Sharaa praised the French president for proceeding. Macron was the first head of state from the European Union to visit Syria since Assad's fall, and the timing of the bombings heightened their political impact.
Syria joined the US-led coalition against IS in 2025. The group lost most of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria by 2019 but retained dormant cells and regarded Syria's new rulers as apostates.
The Damascus explosions were the second deadly bombing episode in the capital that month. A July 2 attack on a cafe killed 10 people. The supplied account did not establish a link between that bombing and the detained cell. For the July 7 blasts, authorities presented custody and the reported cache as evidence of disruption, while the preliminary nature of the affiliation finding and the absence of court proceedings left important parts of the case unresolved.
