The Damascus attacks appeared to be attempts to cause instability, but don’t signal total security breakdown in Syria.
Damascus, Syria – At a cafe in central Damascus, lines of chairs sat dormant outside an empty cafe. Mohammad al-Dahabi, the cafe’s owner, pulled away one chair, revealing a small crater on the floor.
“This is where the explosion happened,” al-Dahabi said about the July 2 bomb blast that took place at the cafe close to Damascus’s Justice Palace and killed at least 10 people. “If it had gone off a half hour later, everyone would have [already] left for the day.”
Damascus was hit by three explosions over the past week, with one on July 2 followed by two more blasts on July 7 near the Four Seasons Hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during a visit to the Syrian capital. That attack killed one person and wounded 36.
The attacks have rattled many people living in Damascus and pointed to the continuing challenges the Syrian government faces in bringing security to the capital. Some residents said years of instability had adapted them to dealing with such events, but there was still a fear when visiting certain parts of central Damascus.
“Many residents felt Damascus was gradually returning to a more normal rhythm of life,” Navvar Saban, a researcher in security and military affairs at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syrian Studies, told Al Jazeera about life before this week’s attacks.
Late Thursday evening, Syrian officials said they had apprehended an ISIL- (ISIS)-linked cell responsible for Tuesday’s blasts.
“The cell responsible for the terrorist bombings that targeted Damascus two days ago is now in our custody,” Interior Minister Anas Khattab posted on X, formerly Twitter.
No group took responsibility for the attacks. Saban said that by going after symbolic targets at sensitive moments, the attackers appeared to be trying to disrupt people’s sense of security in the capital.
“These attacks appear aimed at damaging the perception of stability rather than demonstrating the existence of a large operational capability,” he said.
The fall of the al-Assad regime in December 2024 came after years of fighting and Syria’s slow decline into a devastated country with a barely functioning state. The challenge for Syria since al-Assad’s departure has been tenfold: The economy is in ruins, infrastructure is crumbling if existent at all, electricity is sparse, and there is a genuine fear among locals about security in the country.
Many of those challenges still exist around Syria, though analysts said there had been progress, particularly in Damascus. Syria’s security forces have arrested dozens of operatives of ISIL and foiled numerous assassination plots in the little more than a year and a half since al-Assad’s fall.
“These attacks do not erase the progress made in Damascus, but they do show how conditional that progress still is,” Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “The capital has looked stable on the surface for some time, while the harder work of penetrating clandestine networks and urban peripheries remains incomplete.”
The arrest of an ISIL-linked cell is consistent with previous attacks in Damascus, including an attack on a church in June 2025 that killed at least 25 people.
“The targets fit its logic of perpetrating attacks that deepen communal fear while exposing the government’s inability to protect,” Hawach said. “ISIL has a record of using deniable channels, front groups, or strategic silence when public ownership would be less useful than leaving the state and its rivals guessing.”
On Thursday evening, a policeman outside the Ministry of Tourism, across from the Four Seasons hotel where Tuesday’s explosion happened, picked up a piece of metal stashed in a plant pot. He said it was once part of a rubbish dumpster where the explosive device had been stashed. He arrived at the scene shortly after the blast and found a colleague with a badly wounded leg.
A charred tree trunk stood nearby that locals said was a result of the second bombing just a few steps away. The attacks did not appear to disrupt foot or car traffic. A highway facing the blast sites was packed with cars, and locals walked past it or sat in a park across the street.
But Razan Rashidi, executive director of The Syria Campaign, said the attacks have inspired fear among many residents of the city.
“A lot of the anxiety is around the attacks that have happened near places like the courthouse and other government institutions where people need to process official paperwork,” she said. Unfortunately, many in Damascus are used to living with this kind of violence, she added.
“At the same time, I wouldn’t say the current situation has completely disrupted people’s daily livelihoods,” she said. “Most people continue because they have no other choice.”
Mirella Abou Chanab, a journalist based in Damascus, said that after all the years of war, many locals had gotten used to such incidents. “Generally speaking, it hasn’t changed our daily lives.”
Back at the cafe, Mohammad stood in front and pointed towards the sky. “This used to all be covered,” he said. The fabric awning that used to provide shade was tattered from the explosion.
Mohammad has shut down his cafe, a spot near the Justice Palace popular for lawyers and working-class people, since the attack, which took place as high-profile trials of prominent al-Assad regime figures were being held.
This includes Atef Najib, a notorious security chief accused of torturing children in Deraa in 2011, Wassim al-Assad, a fighter group commander, and former Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, with their cases drawing huge media attention in the country.
Analysts say that Syrian security forces are stretched, handling threats from both elements of the former regime and ISIL-linked cells. But they also said the past week’s attacks do not indicate a complete collapse of security.
“There is a difference between isolated security breaches and a general collapse of security,” Saban said. “This attack appears aimed at damaging the perception of stability rather than demonstrating the existence of a large operational capability.”
Mohammad still has to finish repairing the damage from the attack before reopening the cafe. Outside, a group of middle-aged men sit on chairs and chat. Mohammad hopes soon they will be back inside his cafe, drinking tea or coffee.
“We hope to reopen on Saturday,” he said. “God willing.”
Follow Al Jazeera English:
