The Syrian Interior Ministry's Press Conference on the Damascus Church Bombing

Translation and Overview

In this post I present my full translated transcript of the press conference that the Syria’s Interior Ministry held on 24 June regarding the bombing of the Mar Elias church in Damascus, which as of this date has not been claimed by the Islamic State but rather by a group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna, which is either a pro-Islamic State group currently operating independently or a front for Islamic State. The reason I present the transcript of this conference in full is that some of the media summaries of the conference do not present a wholly accurate picture of what was said. Further, a review of the full transcript shows that some of the remarks made by the Interior Ministry’s spokesman (Nur al-Din al-Baba) deserve closer scrutiny. To wit: