While the French president is being received in the Syrian capital, two explosive devices detonate. The timing seems strategically chosen.
Jul 8, 2026, 4:41 amJul 8, 2026, 4:41 am
Michael Wrase, Limassol / ch media
Syrian security personnel cordoned off the area around the burned-out car.Omar Albam / ap
Two explosions rocked the Syrian capital shortly after Emmanuel Macron entered the presidential palace in Damascus. Previously, he met representatives of civil society at the Four Seasons Hotel, which is located in the center of the Syrian capital. The explosives exploded in the immediate vicinity of the 5-star hotel.
The presidential palace, on the other hand, is a few kilometers away, on a hill in the west of the city. The president, Macron’s office reported, did not even hear the detonations and was unharmed. According to the Syrian Interior Ministry, at least 18 people were injured, including four police officers.
An attack on al-Sharaa’s authority
Last Thursday, ten people were killed in a bomb attack on a café near the Palace of Justice. There are no letters of responsibility for either attack yet. Nevertheless, the actual perpetrator can be deduced from a larger pattern that American security analysts have been documenting for months: the Islamic State (IS).
As the US broadcaster NBC News and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), which specializes in terrorism, independently report, IS has declared a “new phase” of its operations against the al-Sharaa government since February. IS spokesman Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari announced this offensive in a statement, describing Syria as a state that had transitioned from “Iranian to Turkish-American occupation.”
He described Al-Sharaa himself as the “guardian” of the international coalition, whose fate will be no different from that of Bashar al-Assad. In the first few days after this announcement alone, the FDD recorded at least six attacks in eastern Syrian provinces, with at least eight Syrian security forces killed.
The fact that IS is the organizational force behind the series of attacks is also supported by current analyzes by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Middle East expert Aaron Zelin points to a car bomb attack on May 18 at a security post in Mayadin that killed five people – the first successful IS attack on the new government since Assad was overthrown in December 2024.
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa meets French President Emmanuel Macron at the palace in Damascus.Syrian Presidency / zvg
Already in January of this year, an IS attack on the Shiite Sayyeda Zainab shrine near Damascus was thwarted, to which the USA said it contributed intelligence information. A current UN report cited by the FDD estimates there are 3,000 IS fighters. These have now spread across the country, although the organization deliberately leaves some of its operations unknown in order to conceal the actual extent.
A difficult new beginning
The series of attacks hits the Syrian president at an extremely sensitive moment. It was only in November that al-Sharaa tried to position itself as a reliable partner for Washington by joining Syria in the international anti-IS coalition. An American troop withdrawal from Syria began almost simultaneously.
Macron’s visit, during which economic agreements to rebuild the country were to be signed, was part of the same strategy: namely, to establish the former jihadist leader as an internationally recognized statesman. It is precisely this legitimacy that is coming under pressure as a result of the attacks – not through a frontal attack on al-Sharaa’s rule, but through the silent message that IS is still in a position to at least partially refute the security promises of the new government in Damascus. (schweiztoday.ch)