A little-known Sunni Muslim extremist group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a weekend suicide attack against a church in Damascus, while the Syrian government insisted they were part of the Islamic State group.

Sunday’s attack killed 25 people and wounded dozens, striking terror into Syria’s Christian community and other minorities.

A statement from Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said an operative “blew up the Saint Elias church in the Dwelaa neighbourhood of Damascus”, adding that it came after an unspecified “provocation”.

Syria’s Islamist authorities, who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, had quickly blamed the attack on the Islamic State group and announced several arrests on Monday in a security operation against IS-affiliated cells.

IS did not claim responsibility for the attack.

The Saraya Ansar al-Sunna statement, on the messaging app Telegram, said the government’s version of events was “untrue, fabricated”.

The spokesman for the interior ministry, Nureddine al-Baba, said during a press conference on Tuesday that the cell behind the attack “officially follows Daesh”, adding that Saraya Ansar al-Sunna was ” not independent… as it follows Daesh”.

Daesh is the Arabic acronym for IS.

Baba also said that the church attacker was not Syrian, without specifying his nationality, and came to Damascus with another suicide bomber from the al-Hol camp in the northeast, which hosts displaced people and relatives of IS members.

Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, a Syria-based analyst and researcher, said Saraya Ansar al-Sunna could be “a pro-IS splinter originating primarily from defectors from HTS… and other factions but currently operating independently of IS”.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is the Islamist group headed by Syria’s now-President Ahmed al-Sharaa that led the overthrow of Assad.

Baba said it could be “just an IS front group”.

Citing a source within the group, Tamimi said a disillusioned former HTS functionary headed Saraya.

He added that its leadership included a former member of Hurras al-Din, an Al-Qaeda affiliate that announced in January it was dissolving on the orders of the new government.

‘Heinous crime’

At the funeral of some of those killed in Damascus’s Holy Cross Church, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East John X called the attack an “unacceptable incident”.

Addressing Sharaa, the patriarch said “the heinous crime that took place at Mar Elias Church is the first massacre of its kind in Syria since 1860”, referring to the mass killings of Christians in Damascus under the Ottoman Empire.

“We refuse for these events to take place during the revolution and during your honourable era.”

Sharaa had called the patriarchate’s adviser to send his condolences, an act John X called “insufficient”.

To ululations and tears, nine white coffins were carried into the church, amid a heavy security presence in the area.

“These events are fleeting and have no value in history,” teacher Raji Rizkallah, 50, told AFP.

“Christianity is a deeply rooted and permanent part of this land, and extremists are heretics.”

Assad’s government portrayed itself as a protector of minorities, who were subject to numerous attacks claimed by jihadist groups during the 14-year civil war.

The new authorities have repeatedly pledged to protect minorities, despite the eruption of sectarian violence on multiple occasions in recent months.

The suicide bombing followed massacres of members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs and clashes with Druze fighters.

The bloodshed has raised concerns about the government’s ability to control radical fighters who took part in Assad’s overthrow.

HTS was once affiliated with Al-Qaeda before breaking ties in 2016.

Source: AFP