Syria says the Islamic State group was behind the deadly attack on a Damascus church
Sunday's attack on the Mar Elias church killed at least 25 people. The attack was the first of its kind in Syria in years, and comes as Damascus under de facto Islamist rule is trying to win the support of the country's minorities.
Noureddine Al-Baba told journalists a second attacker was caught Monday on his way to target a Shiite shrine in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb in Damascus, where many sites of the Islamic sect are located. Al-Baba said security forces also thwarted a third operation, where an attacker on a motorbike was going to target a crowded gathering in the capital. He did not give further details.
'We raided IS hideouts, seizing weapons and explosive caches,' said Al-Baba, who said security forces were able to reach the sleeper cell's leader after interrogating the second attacker. He said the church bomber was not Syrian but did not give details.
Al-Baba said cell leader Mohammad Abdelillah al-Jumaili was an 'IS leader' responsible for recruiting extremists from the sprawling Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria to conduct attacks.
Tens of thousands of IS militants and their families from around the world live in Al-Hol, held by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF condemned the attack on Sunday.
Meanwhile, funerals were held for the victims of the church bombing at the Church of the Holy Cross in Damascus. Church bells rang and women ululated as men walked through the weeping crowds carrying white coffins. The crowds cheered as the clergy honored the victims as martyrs.
Dima Beshara, 40, who lost her cousin Emil, 38, and seven other family members in the attack said Syria has always enjoyed religious coexistence and that she was among many from all sects who celebrated the downfall of ousted leader Bashar Assad in December.
'What did they do wrong? They went to the house of God to pray?' Beshara said at the graveyard. 'Am I supposed to be scared every time I want to go and pray?'
She fears for her life and those of her loved ones, who regularly attend church for prayers, weddings and funerals.
'We love everyone. We don't have a problem with anyone. But we hope that they love us in return,' she said.
___
Chehayeb reported from Beirut.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Finally, Trump has made an important break with the Israeli government
By now, we're used to Donald Trump expediting some dramatic changes in policy in an almost casual manner. But in giving the British government the green light to recognise Palestine as an independent sovereign state, the president has sprung one of his more significant surprises. It follows very closely after his rejection of Benjamin Netanyahu's grotesque claim that there is no starvation in Gaza. It opens up policy options for Sir Keir Starmer that previously seemed off-limits if the prime minister were to preserve his special personal rapport with Mr Trump. It means that, at the cabinet meeting this week, the British government could take a historic step comparable to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 that recognised the case for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Obviously, the British government, then an imperial power, had incomparably greater means to set the course of events in the region. Sir Keir has also formally stated that Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation, can never form part of an administration in Gaza; that is not part of the recognition process. Nonetheless, it would see the UK follow France in making that move, even if Sir Keir keeps the emphasis on recognition forming part of the two-state solution. Without the effective consent of the United States, the indisputable leading Western power in the region, to make such a move, recognition of Palestine by the UK might have squandered influence and proved irrelevant or even counterproductive. Now, it will actually carry with it the suggestion of American neutrality or acquiescence. That makes a difference. In terms of domestic policy, Sir Keir need no longer necessarily fear another parliamentary rebellion by his backbenchers, nor ministerial resignations, nor a hostile party conference session. There's no doubt that Israel has been losing significant ground in diplomatic terms and with world opinion in recent weeks. When as loyal an ally as Mr Trump cannot bring himself to endorse Mr Netanyahu's astonishing – indeed, shaming – claim that 'there is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation', then there is not much the Israeli prime minister can hope for from international sympathy. Even if the first part of that statement could, by some feat of sophistry, be justified, the second certainly cannot. The images of emaciated, suffering babies and children that are coming out of Gaza are, as Sir Keir says, 'revolting'. So is the attitude of those who have allowed this to happen. As the occupying power, Israel has a solemn obligation under international law to protect the civilian population. Demonstrably, that has not been discharged. Gaza's health ministry, which is Hamas-controlled, says some 14 people have died in the past 24 hours of starvation and malnutrition, making a total of 147, including 89 children, most in just the last few weeks. Whether this is all the fault of Israel – or, as Mr Netanyahu (and sometimes Mr Trump) asserts, of Hamas stealing supplies and money – the horrendous facts on the ground, verified by the world's news outlets, are not in doubt. The UNRWA relief body warns that one in five infants is acutely malnourished and at risk. This is what has to be stopped now; blame can be ascribed later. As has long been evident, President Trump has an unparalleled ability to make extravagant claims in the face of contradictory facts, and has himself proposed outlandish plans for the future of the Gaza Strip; but, answering reporters' questions, he bluntly rejected the Israeli prime minister's statement: 'That's real starvation […] They have to get food and safety right now. ' That is an important break with the Israeli government. Mr Netanyahu has developed a habit of annoying Mr Trump by saying and doing things without consulting Washington, including bombing Israel's neighbours, and the very real incidence of hunger in Gaza, apparent enough to Mr Trump, seems to be the latest cause of friction. It has seemingly provoked President Trump into taking a more relaxed attitude towards Palestinian statehood. Continuing intense pressure from the international community, and particularly the United States, has also resulted in a resumption of aid supplies through traditional land routes. Certainly, there seems to be no other reason, aside from that global disgust at what's happening, and President Trump's personal revulsion, why Israel would voluntarily pause its military activities, albeit temporarily, to allow more humanitarian aid to flow into the area. President Trump says Mr Netanyahu has to make sure the Palestinians get the food. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the US, has proved ineffective, at best, while the latest air drops could never address the scale of the approaching famine. For the moment, the very worst consequences of the shortages of food, water and shelter may be averted, provided that the UN and others are permitted to do what they, in contrast to the GHF, are well suited to doing: relieving desperate suffering and saving lives in the most efficient ways available. That will certainly help, but it is obviously only a temporary solution to a much wider challenge, and one that may yet overwhelm the various agencies doing their best to make a difference. This is a population of 2 million people squeezed into a few square miles, where almost all economic activity, infrastructure, housing, medical and sanitary systems have been destroyed. There are few, if any, comparable situations anywhere since the devastation of the Second World War. The basic means of sustaining life in Gaza are disappearing; the results can be seen across the world's media. Even Mr Trump believes Israel bears a lot of responsibility to ameliorate the situation. The immediate task for America's allies – and that also means Israel's friends and partners – is to continue to act on that shift in sentiment towards the Netanyahu government, and leverage whatever influence that can be brought to be bear on Mr Trump to keep up the pressure on the man he still sees as his friend and he calls Bibi. In Britain, as in many other Western nations, . Indeed, it is becoming irresistible. Even so, for the moment, the primary goal of this global diplomatic effort must be focused on immediate humanitarian aid, a lengthy ceasefire, and a peace process. The Palestinians in Gaza need food, water, shelter and medicines. The people of Gaza have been suffering such limitless agonies for so long. Right now, while the merits and the technicalities of recognising the state of Palestine are being debated, nothing else matters.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Trump just exposed how irrelevant the Europeans have now become
Time was when Britain and France's words carried weight. During the pomp and power of empire, when they declared their intentions for Palestine, or the rest of the Middle East, or for the Indian subcontinent, or Africa, for that matter, the world straightened its back and listened. The Balfour Declaration mattered. The Slavery Abolition Act mattered. The Napoleonic Code left a potent legacy, as did the Sykes-Picot Agreement. For better or worse, Europeans shaped the world. No longer. Have Emmanuel Macron and Sir Keir Starmer failed to get the memo? Or are they continuing to strut their stuff out of domestic political concerns? Or out of vanity? Either way, these small men are determined to keep invoking former glories even though their moment has passed. Before flying to Scotland on Friday, Donald Trump subjected the preening French president to his worst humiliation: that of irrelevance. Macron's geopolitically illiterate announcement on recognising Palestine 'doesn't matter', Trump said. 'He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight,' he added, bringing to mind Jon Snow's observation in season seven of Game of Thrones that 'everything before the word 'but' is horse s—'. As if that wasn't bad enough, then came the real twist of the knife. 'Here's the good news,' Trump concluded. 'What he says doesn't matter. It's not going to change anything.' You could almost hear the Élysée Palace rock on its foundations. Sir Keir at least appears instinctively to understand his own irrelevance. His body language at the Trump press conference in Scotland on Monday told its own story; his pathetic attempt to defend London's mayor Sadiq Khan – 'he's a friend of mine' – was the bleating of a eunuch. When Israel and America so magnificently bombed Iran last month, Starmer took care to pay lip service to supporting the campaign while also appearing to condemn it. Hardly the decisiveness of an assured leader. It is in this spirit that he continues to keen over a Palestinian state without committing to recognise one. Both betrayal and the betrayal of that betrayal, in one inconsequential prime minister. The Jupiterian Macron, by contrast, has been expending much energy upon drumming up support for a state of Palestine, based on the most fallacious of arguments. His motivation has been opaque, given that he has previously been eloquent in insisting that 'we don't recognise a state based on indignation'. Given the Israelophobic climate, however, nobody has worried about that. The United States, meanwhile, has been substituting words for actions. While the world united in a propaganda campaign, accusing Israel of starving Gaza based on a wilful misreading of the facts, the US and Israel pulled out of talks in Qatar and began to form a new plan. What that will constitute remains to be seen. But the virtue-signalling Europeans are blind to the fact that the only effect of the pressure they have been so unjustly heaping upon Israel may have been to embolden Hamas, causing it to harden its negotiating position and blow up the talks. In other words, the act of vilifying Israel might well have ripped up the very prospects of a ceasefire for which the Europeans claim to be desperate. This was the only way in which Macron's empty words could have exerted any influence on the region, by achieving the precise opposite of their goals. What will be the result? Over the weekend, Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC News that Hamas had effectively signed its own death warrant, arguing that 'there's no way you're going to negotiate an end of this war with Hamas'. 'They're going to do in Gaza what we did in Tokyo and Berlin, take the place by force and start over again, presenting a better future for the Palestinians, hopefully having the Arabs take over the West Bank and Gaza,' Senator Graham added. So there we have it. The depravity of the thing. In seeking for so long to demonise Israel and undermine a democratic ally in favour of the forces of jihad, Europeans are likely to have prolonged the war. Slow. Hand. Clap. It is true that France has joined with Saudi Arabia, a far more consequential power, in convening a conference at the United Nations in New York this week to push for a two-state solution. But the Saudis are adept at playing a multi-level game. 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Or rather: they want a state of their own, but only if it replaces Israel rather than sits alongside it. There is a silver lining, I suppose. Perhaps it's a good thing that Macron and Starmer have far less power than they seem to think. Imagine how the world would look if they were really as influential as they imagined.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Counter terror police probe passenger 'shouting Allahu Akbar after making bomb threat' on packed plane - as man, 41, is charged
A man has been charged after making an alleged bomb threat on a packed passenger plane yesterday. Counter terror police are probing a video posted on social media showing a passenger claim to have a bomb before shouting 'Allahu Akbar' in front of terrified onlookers. The incident took place on an easyJet flight from London Luton Airport to Glasgow on Sunday morning. Officers raced to meet the plane on arrival in Scotland where a man was arrested. Today, police confirmed that a 41-year-old has been charged and will appear at Paisley Sheriff Court later. They said in a statement: 'We believe the incident to be contained and that nobody else was involved. 'We are aware of videos circulating online and these are being assessed by counter terrorism officers.' In one of the videos, a man could be seen shouting: 'Stop the plane. Find the bomb on the plane. Death to America. Death to Trump.' He was then heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar' three times - a phrase which means 'God is the greatest' in Arabic. A hero passenger from row 21 then tackled the man to the ground and held him on the floor. Another man sat on top of him to restrain him and said: 'Sit down don't move.' In another clip, people could be heard nervously asking 'who is he with?', 'does he have his phone?'. The cabin crew could be heard announcing that the plane would be 'landing very shortly'. Passengers asked the man if he had anything in his bag, asking 'do you have a bomb?'. They then asked the man if he had been drinking or taking drugs. He was quizzed by two men, with one asking: 'Why did you say you wanted to bomb this plane?' The passengers managed to locate the man's bag and asked him if he had anything in his pockets. Another panicked woman said: 'Check everywhere, not just his pockets, check his body.' They took his wallet and managed to find his ID, as a woman was heard crying as she took an emotional phone call with a loved one. Upon landing in Glasgow, police were caught on video arresting the man, while he remained lying down in the aisle of the plane. The officer told the man: 'You're calm now, are you going to be calm when I stand you up.' The man replied: 'I'm calm now.' As he was escorted off the plane, the man asked for his 'phone and wallet', which received a cold response from passengers who told him to 'f*** off'. Some managed to find some humour and laughed at the man's request, with one heard saying 'it is like a comedy sketch'. Yesterday, a spokesperson for easyJet said: 'Flight EZY609 from Luton to Glasgow this morning was met by police on arrival in Glasgow, where they boarded the aircraft and removed a passenger due to their behaviour onboard. 'easyJet's crew are trained to assess all situations and act quickly and appropriately to ensure that the safety of the flight and other customers are not compromised at any time. 'The safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is always easyJet's highest priority.'
