Syria's Interior Ministry said today that a "sleeper cell" belonging to the Islamic State (IS) was behind the attack on an Orthodox church in Damascus on Sunday, which killed 25 people.
The attack on the church was the first of its kind in Syria in recent years, and comes as Syria's new Islamist rulers are trying to win the support of the country's minorities after the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.
Ministry spokesman Nureddin al-Baba said a second attacker was caught on Monday on his way to attack a Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb. Al-Baba said security forces also foiled a third operation, in which a motorcycle-borne attacker intended to attack a gathering place in the city.
"We raided IS hideouts, seized weapons and explosives," Al-Baba said, adding that security forces managed to reach the leader of the sleeper cell after questioning another attacker. He said the bomber who carried out the church attack was not Syrian, but gave no details.
Al-Baba said the cell leader was responsible for recruiting extremists from the Al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria to carry out the attack. Tens of thousands of IS militants and their families live in Al-Hol, which is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF condemned the attack.
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