The international community condemned the attack, the first of its kind in the Syrian capital since Islamist-led forces toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.
Security remains one of the greatest challenges for Syria’s new authorities, with the international community repeatedly urging them to protect minorities.
The church itself was strewn with wood from fittings and pews, with fallen icons and pools of blood on the floor.
State news agency SANA, citing the ministry of health, reported a death toll of 22, with 63 injured.
Ziad Helou, 40, who was at a shop nearby, said he heard gunfire then an explosion, and saw glass flying.
‘Heinous crime’
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the first suicide attack inside a church in Syria since war erupted in 2011. Other churches had been damaged or seen attacks in their vicinity during the conflict, but none had been so directly targeted.
Syria’s Christian community has shrunk from around one million before the war to under 300,000 due to waves of displacement and emigration.
US special envoy Tom Barrack said Washington supported Syria “as it fights against those who are seeking to create instability and fear in their country and the broader region”.
France’s foreign ministry restated its commitment to “a transition in Syria that allows Syrians, whatever their religion, to live in peace and security in a free, united, pluralistic, prosperous, stable and sovereign” country.
Investigation
Assad had portrayed himself as a protector of minorities, who during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war were targeted by numerous attacks -- many of them claimed by jihadist groups including IS.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said that specialised teams had begun investigating.
In an interview earlier this month, Khattab said that IS had shifted “to studied attacks on strategic targets” and had attempted “to carry out attacks against the Christian and Shiite community” that the authorities had thwarted.
IS seized large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in the early years of the civil war, declaring a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014 before being territorially defeated in 2019.
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