The Syrian Interior Ministry said a preliminary investigation determined that Thursday evening's explosion at a Damascus cafe was caused by a one-kilogram improvised bomb packed with metal shrapnel, killing nine civilians and wounding 20 others. The investigation continues.
Just before 01:10 Jerusalem on Friday, the Syrian Interior Ministry confirmed that the explosion at a Damascus cafe on Thursday evening was a deliberate bombing — a one-kilogram improvised explosive device packed with metal shrapnel that killed nine civilians and wounded 20 others. The announcement is the ministry's first formal determination of cause in a case The Zioneer has tracked since Thursday afternoon, when initial reports spoke only of multiple casualties at a cafe near the Justice Palace.
Over the course of Thursday afternoon and evening, The Zioneer's thread documented a steadily rising toll: from an initial report of five wounded (15:33 Jerusalem) to four killed and 15 wounded (15:33), then five killed and 16 wounded (15:33). By 15:33, the Damascus governor had described the device as "primitive" and the Syrian Health Ministry reported six killed and 22 wounded. Minutes later, the ministry revised the toll to seven killed, and state media then reported nine killed — the same figure the Interior Ministry now cites. The first formal attribution of cause came only after midnight, when a preliminary investigation identified the device's weight and construction.
As The Zioneer reported in its initial bulletin on the attack (published at 01:05 Jerusalem), the ministry's finding establishes the incident as a bombing, not an accident — a distinction the governor's "primitive" description had hinted at hours earlier. The attack occurred one day after a new Syrian government was sworn in, at a cafe known as a meeting spot for Supreme Court justices. No group has claimed responsibility, and the Interior Ministry did not name suspects or a motive.
The investigation remains open. The ministry has not stated whether it believes the device was planted or left by a person, nor has it linked the bombing to a previous deadly incident in Damascus on July 2 that The Zioneer covered at 16:03 Jerusalem that day.
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