Bomb hidden in Damascus cafe kills nine, injures 20 in deadliest attack since church suicide bombing a year ago

The explosion

A bomb detonated inside the Al-Mouchariya cafe on Al-Nasr Street, a short walk from the Palace of Justice in the Al-Hamidiyah district, at around 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT) on 2 July 2026. The device, described by the Interior Ministry as a homemade bomb weighing roughly one kilogram and packed with metal fragments, had been placed inside the popular venue frequented by lawyers and shoppers. Security forces rushed to the scene and cordoned off the area, while ambulances with sirens blaring converged on the residential and commercial street.

Casualties and response

The Health Ministry initially reported four dead and ten injured, then raised the toll to five dead and sixteen wounded. By the following morning, an updated count put the number of fatalities at nine, with twenty people injured. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the bloodiest in Syria since a suicide bombing targeted a church one year ago. Damascus governor Maher Edelbi, who hurried to the site, vowed accountability.

“If God wills, those responsible for this bloodshed will be punished.”

Witness accounts

Nawar Khayyat, 40, who owns a solar-panel battery shop opposite the courthouse, told AFP that the blast shook his storefront. “I heard a loud explosion and the front of my shop trembled. People rushed toward the cafe and started calling for help,” he said. Mohammad al-Dahabi, who runs an optics store nearby, described running to the scene and seeing victims on the ground. “There was blood everywhere around them,” he said, adding that the sight reminded him of the explosions Damascus endured during the 2011–2024 civil war.

“I ran to the scene and saw people lying on the ground, with blood everywhere around them.”

Investigation and context

Interior Ministry officials said experts are collecting evidence, reviewing surveillance-camera footage, and interviewing witnesses to identify the perpetrators and any accomplices. General Mohammad Khit of the Internal Security Forces confirmed on state television that the explosion was caused by a planted device. The attack comes as the Syrian government, led by a coalition that took power after the civil war, works to restore stability. Governor Edelbi remarked that “whenever the country enjoys a period of stability, malicious actors try to destabilize it.”