Suicide bomber kills 22 at Orthodox church in Damascus

The Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemned ‘this heinous assault against our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ’ and demanded action from the Syrian government.

A terrorist attack on a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus killed at least 22 people.

The attack on the Mar Elias Church during a liturgy on Sunday also left more than 60 people injured.

According to Syria’s interior ministry, the attackers are believed to be members of the Islamic State (IS) group.  They first used firearms to storm the church, where more than 150 people were gathered, before one detonated a suicide bomb vest.

Abdul Rahim Atoun, head of the Advisory Office for Religious Affairs at the Presidency of Syria, said such a crime contradicted Syria’s customs and values, and that the ideology behind it is “prohibited by religious teachings and punishable by law”.

“Those responsible should face deterrent penalties that prevent them and others from contemplating such thuggery again,” he said, according to the Syrian official news agency SANA.

Reports of the attack from the Syrian capital shook Christian communities worldwide and prompted action from both Orthodox and political leaders.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch issued a statement condemning the attack, and said Patriarch John X Yazigi was closely following the situation and contacting political and religious leaders about “the grim reality unfolding in Damascus to the entire world”.

It continued: “On this day when our Antiochian Church commemorates All the Saints of Antioch, the treacherous hand of evil struck this evening, claiming our lives, along with the lives of our loved ones who fell today as martyrs during the evening Divine Liturgy.”

The patriarchate urged the authorities to take full responsibility for violations against the sanctity of churches and to ensure the safety of all citizens.

A statement from the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem condemned “this heinous assault against our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ” and demanded effective action from the Syrian government.

“Standing in unwavering solidarity with His Beatitude Patriarch John X Yazigi and those clergy and people under his pastoral care, we also extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and offer our prayers for healing and a speedy recovery to those who were wounded in this terrorist assault,” it said.

The Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land also issued a statement expressing “profound shock and deep revulsion” at the attack.

“There is no justification – religious, moral, or rational – for the slaughter of innocents, least of all in a sacred space,” the statement said. “Such violence under the guise of faith is a grave perversion of all that is holy. This is an act of unspeakable evil – a crime against humanity and a sin before God.”

The Catholic bishops prayed “that the swamps of hatred and fanaticism be decisively eradicated so that the peoples of the Middle East”.

Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attack, calling on the Syrian leadership to pursue those responsible and to “implement measures to guarantee the safety of Christian communities and all religious groups, allowing them to live without fear”.

The Greek foreign minister Giorgos Gerapetritis was to hold talks with EU ministers on the latest developments.

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