By Yamam Al Shaar, Kinda Makieh and Clotaire Achi
DAMASCUS, July 7 (Reuters) – Two bombs exploded near a hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron had spent the night, but his office said he did not hear the explosions and he met Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa soon afterwards on Tuesday.
Syrian authorities said 18 people were wounded by the blasts, overshadowing the first visit to Syria by a European Union head of state since Sharaa toppled Bashar al-Assad in 2024, and underlining continued security threats in the country.
The explosions struck a busy area between the Syrian Tourism Ministry and the national museum across the street from the Four Seasons hotel, where a source in Macron’s delegation and Syrian security sources said he had spent the night and had met civil society groups on Tuesday morning.
In a post on X, Macron said his visit to Syria continues.
“Nothing can undermine the desire of Syrians to live in a fully sovereign and secure Syria,” he posted. “This morning I met Syria in all its diversity, and I saw dignity, courage and determination.”
FLAMES AND SMOKE BILLOW FROM TRASH CAN
The first blast hit soon after Macron’s motorcade left for the presidential palace. Reuters footage showed flames and smoke billowing from the site, when a second explosion was caught on camera a few metres (yards) away.
The second blast went off next to an ambulance parked at the scene, where some two dozen people had gathered. Emergency personnel worked to extinguish the blaze, with smoke and flames close to the shops behind.
Reuters video showed Macron’s motorcade heading along a highway towards the presidential palace before the blasts. A video published by Syrian state media then showed him standing alongside Sharaa and meeting other Syrian officials and military officers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Sharaa, a former al Qaeda commander, has been working to stabilise and rebuild Syria since leading rebel forces that toppled Assad after more than 13 years of civil war, building close ties to Western and Middle Eastern states that opposed Assad.
Islamic State, an adversary of Sharaa during the civil war, has claimed a series of attacks on government forces in Syria since February, when the jihadist group announced what it described as a new phase of operations against his government.
DAMASCUS CAFE BOMBED LAST WEEK
The Syrian Interior Ministry said security forces had identified two bombs planted near the Tourism Ministry and had been preparing to defuse them when they went off, describing the devices as crudely made.
The bombs — one of them placed in a car parked on the roadside and the other in a trash can — were planted outside a security cordon around Macron’s place of residence, and posed no threat to his visit, the ministry said.
Internal security forces have launched search operations to identify those responsible, it said.
The French Presidency said the blasts were not audible from the presidential motorcade and a Reuters journalist with the press group accompanying Macron did not hear the blast or see any commotion during the French president’s morning events.
Last week, a bomb at a Damascus cafe killed nine people and wounded 20 others. There was no claim of responsibility.
Macron’s visit was intended to highlight Syria’s political transformation under Sharaa.
During the Syrian conflict, a range of militant groups including Islamic State gained a foothold in the country.
Sharaa, a member of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, has pledged to build an inclusive new order in Syria since ending more than five decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family. But his promise has been tested by bouts of violence pitting pro-government forces against members of religious and ethnic minority groups, with many hundreds killed last year.
(Reporting by Kinda Makieh, Clotaire Achi, Inti Landauro and John Irish; Tala Ramadan, Ahmed Elimam and Nayera Abdallah and Feras Dalatey in Dubai Writing by Angus McDowall and Tom Perry; Editing by Michael Georgy, Andrew Heavens and Sharon Singleton)
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