At least nine people were killed and 22 wounded when a bomb exploded inside a busy cafe in central Damascus, according to reporting from the Syrian capital. No organisation had claimed responsibility for the attack.
The blast struck a cafe on al-Nasr Street in the al-Hijaz district, roughly 100 metres from the main entrance to the Palace of Justice. The venue was frequented by lawyers, court employees and visitors, placing the explosion in a heavily used part of the city. Officials cautioned that some of those taken to al-Mouwasa Hospital had serious injuries and that the death toll could increase.
Security sources told Al Jazeera that an individual entered the cafe, left an improvised explosive device beneath a table and departed. The sources also raised the possibility that the person had intended to reach the courthouse for additional attacks, but that element remained an investigative theory rather than an established fact.
Osama Atika, the commander of Internal Security in Damascus, and Interior Ministry officers went to the scene as an investigation began. Damascus Governor Maher Marwan accused unnamed actors of seeking to undermine the country but did not identify a suspect or provide evidence assigning responsibility.
The courthouse nearby has been the setting for prominent trials involving figures from the former government of Bashar al-Assad. The initial reporting noted recent proceedings involving former security chief Atef Najib, militia commander Wassim al-Assad and former Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun. Analysts interviewed by Al Jazeera said anger over those cases could be relevant to the investigation, but no direct link to the cafe bombing had been demonstrated.
The explosion followed other recent attacks in Damascus. A May 19 car bombing near the Armament Management centre in Bab Sharqi killed one soldier and wounded 18. On June 22, the ISIL armed group claimed a bombing at the Mar Elias church in Dwelaa. The existence of those separate incidents does not establish who carried out the cafe attack.
The July 2 bombing therefore presented Syrian authorities with both an immediate criminal investigation and a broader security problem. Its location near a central judicial institution, and the casualties among people using a public cafe, highlighted the difficulty of protecting civilian spaces during the country's transition after Assad's removal in December 2024.
Until investigators release substantiated findings or a credible claim is independently assessed, responsibility remains unknown. The confirmed public account is limited to the location, casualties and authorities' description of the suspected device. Marwan acknowledged that achieving stability would take time, while maintaining that Interior Ministry performance had improved since the former government fell.
