In an official statement issued immediately after a suicide bomber opened fire on worshippers before blowing himself up at a Christian church in Damascus, Syria's government called the attack a desperate attempt to undermine national coexistence and destabilize the country. The Interior Ministry blamed the so-called "Islamic State" group for the attack, which killed 25 people and injured 63.

In neighboring Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun called for "necessary measures to prevent its recurrence, provide protection for places of worship and their visitors, and ensure the safety of all Syrian citizens, regardless of their religion, as the unity of the Syrian people remains the foundation for preventing discord."

Leaders of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land in Jerusalem said: "There is no justification — religious, moral, or rational — for the slaughter of innocents, least of all in a sacred space. Such violence under the guise of faith is a grave perversion of all that is holy."

Michael Bauer, the head of the Beirut office of Germany's Konrad Adenauer Foundation, told DW that the attack did not just target the worshippers at the church, nor Christians broadly, but was meant to send a message. "There has been

© Deutsche Welle