{"id":1543979,"date":"2025-06-27T01:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1543979"},"modified":"2025-06-27T01:45:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T05:45:00","slug":"offshoot-of-syrias-ruling-hts-claims-credit-for-damascus-church-bombing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/offshoot-of-syrias-ruling-hts-claims-credit-for-damascus-church-bombing\/1543979\/","title":{"rendered":"Offshoot Of Syria’s Ruling HTS Claims Credit For Damascus Church Bombing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Offshoot Of Syria’s Ruling HTS Claims Credit For Damascus Church Bombing<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jason Ditz\u00a0via AntiWar.com,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday, a massive suicide bomb attack tore through the important Greek Orthodox church Mar Elias in Damascus,\u00a0killing 27 and wounding dozens more<\/a>. The huge attack just added to the spate of sectarian violence across Syria, which undercuts the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) government\u2019s claim to be protecting religious minorities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The HTS was quick to blame ISIS<\/strong> for the Mar Elias bombing, and on Monday announced the\u00a0arrest of a number of ISIS associates<\/a>\u00a0who they claimed were involved, vowing to bring them to justice. Now that whole narrative seems in doubt<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

ISIS never took credit for the Mar Elias bombing, which, since it was the biggest attack in Damascus in a very long time, would be an unusual oversight. Now, another group, Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah<\/strong> (SAAS),\u00a0issued its own statement claiming credit<\/a>\u00a0for the attack.<\/p>\n

SAAS, which was said to be formed in February, went on to say that the government\u2019s claims of arresting people involved with the attack were \u201cuntrue, fabricated.\u201d <\/strong>The group is being presented as an ISIS splinter group by some reports, but the reality is substantially different.<\/p>\n

SAAS\u00a0does indeed have some ISIS defectors<\/a>\u00a0within, according to reports, but it also has a substantial number of HTS defectors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

SAAS founder Abu Aisha al-Shami was an HTS member<\/strong>, and said he broke away and formed his own group because he perceived HTS\u00a0as being too soft on Shi\u2019ites and other \u201crejectionists.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

While HTS has undergone a massive reformation in its presentation in the media, the group was a renamed al-Qaeda affiliate that retains its deeply Salafist ideologies.<\/p>\n

After a brutal, religiously motivated terrorist attack on Christians in Syria, the EU remains silent. Brussels usually reacts within minutes when it comes to other parts of the world, like Ukraine. This double standard is outrageous, and the lack of condemnation is unacceptable. pic.twitter.com\/ApcahCj1BY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 (@FM_Szijjarto) June 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

While playing nice with religious minorities in Syria on paper, they\u2019ve tended to turn a blind eye to attacks on them, notably the massacre of the Alawites, where\u00a0well over 1,300 Alawites were killed in March<\/a>, many by security forces. Those\u00a0killings continue to this day<\/a>, and the promised investigation never seemed to go anywhere.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Alawites, SAAS played a part in these massacres as well<\/strong>. The group regularly brags of carrying out attacks on Alawites and Druze Syrians, including what they called the \u201cHarvest of Ramadan,<\/a>\u201d where they listed attacks and vandalism done during the holiday on the Alawite town of Qardaha.<\/p>\n

That they would be behind the Mar Elias attack is not out of keeping with the way the group has operated in its brief existence. It provides a messaging problem for the HTS though, since the government has not done much about the SAAS at all since it came into existence.<\/p>\n

The Orthodox Christian leader in Syria has called out the Jolani regime:<\/em><\/p>\n

My respect for His Beatitude Patriarch John X Yazigi has grown tenfold after his historic speech from Damascus openly criticizing the Julani regime.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake: the regime will try to harm him.<\/p>\n

When you see the incitement\u2014calling him an \u201cAssad regime remnant\u201d or accusing\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/nHxDqLPZe9<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) June 26, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Syrian Christian leader Patriarch John X. Yazigi issued a statement after the attack criticizing the government for its inability to protect religious minorities, saying<\/a> \u201ccondolences are not enough for us\u201d<\/strong> and that the government has a fundamental duty to protect all its citizens. For now, though, that has begun and ended with blaming ISIS to justify ongoing operations against ISIS in the east.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 06\/26\/2025 – 21:45<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/offshoot-ruling-hts-claims-credit-damascus-church-bombing<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Offshoot Of Syria’s Ruling HTS Claims Credit For Damascus Church Bombing Authored by Jason Ditz\u00a0via AntiWar.com, On Sunday, a massive suicide bomb attack tore through…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1543980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1543980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}