DAMASCUS, July 9: The recent suicide attack on a church in Damascus, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens, has raised concerns for religious minorities in Syria. The new government, led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is controlled by Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa. Many accuse the new government of looking the other way or being unable to control the armed groups it is trying to absorb. Among these groups are thousands of foreign fighters, who often hold a more extreme Islamic ideology than many of their Syrian counterparts. In an unusual move, al-Sharaa early on promoted a half-dozen foreign fighters to ranks as high as brigadier general.
The attack has raised fears of a mass exodus of Christians similar to what happened in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and the rise of sectarian violence. Christians made up about 10% of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million, enjoying freedom of worship under the Assad government and some high government posts. However, “the size of fear has increased among Christians,” said politician Ayman Abdel Nour.
Many foreign fighters could stay, as the Interior Ministry has said the church attacker was not Syrian and had been living in al-Hol camp in the northeast. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces that control the camp have said their investigation showed that the attacker did not come from al-Hol.
Several groups enjoying wide influence in post-Assad Syria include the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria, Junud al-Sham, and Ajnad al-Qawqaz. Al-Sharaa has said many foreign fighters are now married to Syrian women and could end up getting citizenship, and has given no indication whether any of the fighters will be asked to leave the country. (AP)
