On Thursday evening, the Syrian Ministry of Interior revealed the details of the bombing that targeted a café on Al-Nasr Street near the Palace of Justice in Damascus, stressing that investigations are still ongoing to uncover the circumstances of the incident and identify the perpetrators and everyone behind them.
The Ministry said in a statement that the explosion occurred on Thursday afternoon, at 3:00, inside a café on Al-Nasr Street, about 70 meters to the western side of the Palace of Justice, resulting in 9 victims and the injury of 20 others, in addition to causing material damage to the site.
According to the statement, preliminary procedures and investigations showed that the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device, weighing about one kilogram, and was equipped with metal fragments, which caused severe injuries and significant damage to the place.
Following the bombing, the security forces imposed a security cordon around the site, while engineering teams and police dogs carried out careful combing operations to ensure that the area was free of any other threats, in conjunction with the evidence collection teams in the Criminal Investigation Department beginning their field work.
The Interior Ministry explained that the specialized teams collected forensic evidence, reviewed surveillance camera recordings, and took statements from witnesses and people who were present in the vicinity of the incident, as part of investigations aimed at uncovering the threads of the crime and identifying its perpetrators and the parties behind it.
The Ministry confirmed that investigations are still ongoing, and that any developments or results will be announced through the official channels of the Ministry of Interior as soon as they are verified.
The Syrian Ministry of Health had announced the transfer of the injured to Damascus, the Red Crescent, Ibn al-Nafis, al-Rashid, and al-Muwasat hospitals, to take the necessary medical and emergency measures, in light of the injuries varying between serious, moderate, and minor.
The Syrian News Agency quoted the head of the ambulance department at Damascus Hospital, Muhammad Haitham Farhat, as saying that the injuries were mostly explosive injuries concentrated in the limbs, in addition to injuries in the abdomen that required direct surgical intervention, while the critical cases were the result of bruises in the abdomen, chest, and head.
For his part, the head of the nursing department at Damascus Hospital, Saeed Nasrallah, indicated that the hospital suddenly received a number of cases, ranging from serious, moderate, and simple, pointing out that most of the serious cases were immediately transferred to the recovery department to deal with them according to the condition of each injured person.
This bombing comes in a very sensitive area within the Syrian capital, due to its proximity to the Palace of Justice, official institutions, and an active civil movement, which gives it a security dimension that goes beyond the size of the device used, especially since the choice of place and timing suggest an attempt to cause shock inside Damascus and bring security concerns back to the forefront.
Since the new authority arrived in Damascus after the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the Syrian capital has witnessed limited security incidents from time to time, in light of a delicate transitional phase during which the new authorities are trying to establish security and reset state institutions, after long years of war, division, and the multiplicity of armed forces on the ground.
On May 19, the Syrian authorities announced the death of a soldier as a result of a car bomb explosion in Damascus near a building belonging to the Ministry of Defense, explaining at the time that the explosion coincided with the work of an army group to dismantle an explosive device.
In June 2025, Damascus witnessed a suicide bombing inside a church in the Al-Duwaylaa neighborhood, killing 25 people. It was claimed by an extremist group, while the authorities attributed it to ISIS, which then re-shed light on the security challenges facing Syria in the period after the fall of the previous regime, especially inside the capital and around vital institutions.
These incidents put the Syrian authorities before a new test in the internal security file, as any breach in the heart of Damascus carries multiple messages, whether in terms of the fragility of some sites, or in terms of the attempt of some armed groups to exploit the transitional period to confuse the internal scene, at a time when the government seeks to establish an image of stability and restore the confidence of citizens and institutions.
