Syrian authorities announced on Friday the capture of a cell linked to the Islamic State (IS) group that carried out two bombings in central Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit earlier this week, and said they had uncovered a hidden explosives cache intended for further attacks. The interior ministry stated that intensive investigations led security forces to a secret storage site, where engineering teams dismantled a number of explosive devices. The announcement followed a series of simultaneous raids across the capital and its countryside that, according to the ministry, resulted in the arrest of all members of the cell.

According to Syrian officials, preliminary interrogations indicated the cell was affiliated with IS. Ahmad al-Dalati, head of internal security for the Damascus region, told state television that investigators had identified one member through security camera footage and then tracked down the others. The two blasts on Tuesday, caused by devices placed in a rubbish container and a parked vehicle near the Four Seasons Hotel where Macron had spent the night, killed one person and wounded 36, the health ministry said. The French president, who was en route to the presidential palace at the time, continued his meeting with President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who praised Macron’s ‘courage’ for not cutting short the trip.

The security operation, however, drew attention to the sectarian geography of the raids. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, reported that dozens of people were arrested in the working-class Ish al-Warwar suburb, a neighbourhood that before the 2024 fall of Bashar al-Assad had a large Alawite population. While a resident told Agence France-Presse that the arrests did not appear to target Alawites specifically, the area has seen previous security sweeps since Islamist-led authorities took power, prompting many residents to leave. Iranian media outlets framed the arrests as a crackdown on opponents under the pretext of counterterrorism, a perspective that underscores regional scepticism about the new government’s methods.

The bombings are the second major attack in the Syrian capital this month, following a July 2 explosion at a café near the main judicial building that killed at least 10 people. Western security analysts note that IS, though territorially defeated in 2019, has declared a new phase of operations against the al-Sharaa government and has activated sleeper cells. A United Nations counterterrorism report cited five foiled assassination attempts targeting al-Sharaa and two senior ministers. Viewed from Paris, Macron’s visit—the first by a European Union head of state since Assad’s ouster—was intended to signal support for Syria’s political transition and encourage reconstruction, but the attacks underscored the fragility of the security environment. The interior minister said the identities and affiliations of the detained cell members would be made public once investigations are complete.