Explosions rock Damascus as French President Macron visits Syria

Two bombs exploded on Tuesday near a hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron spent the night, wounding 18 people and overshadowing the first visit to Syria by a European Union head of state since Bashar al-Assad was toppled.

Macron, whose motorcade left the hotel shortly before the blasts, pressed ahead with his visit, meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the presidential palace. His office said he had not heard the blasts.

The blasts underscore the major security challenges in Syria, where Macron is the first head of state of a ​major European Union country to visit since rebels led by Sharaa toppled ​Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

The explosions struck a busy area of Damascus 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.

Posting on X just after the blasts, Macron said his visit continued and praised the “dignity, courage and determination” of Syrians he had met.

“We are not naive about the risks, but they are being managed,” Macron said later in a news conference with Sharaa. “Certain groups,” sought to prevent “Syria’s full and complete reintegration into the international community,” he added.

Macron also said France was working to redefine its security and military co-operation with Syria, including the potential support of French special forces to fight Islamic State, which has claimed several attacks on Syrian forces this year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday’s attack. Sharaa said investigations were ongoing.

Macron, who led calls for the lifting of Western sanctions on Syria last year, was accompanied by business leaders, including the CEOs of TotalEnergies and shipping group CMA CGM.

The Elysee said CMA CGM signed a partnership deal with Syria, including air cargo freight handling, at Damascus airport, and that France and Syria would start a process to restore $58.3 million US of assets to Syria that were confiscated from the late Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar’s uncle.

Macron said France was ready to help rebuild Syria’s economy and banking sector.

The first blast hit ⁠soon after Macron’s motorcade left ⁠for the presidential palace. Reuters footage showed flames and smoke billowing from ‌a trash can when a second explosion was caught on camera a few metres away.

The second blast went off next to an ambulance parked at the scene, where some two dozen people had gathered.

Flames and thick black smoke were seen billowing from close to the shops behind, as emergency personnel worked to put out the blaze.

Reuters ⁠video showed Macron’s motorcade heading along a highway towards the presidential palace before the blasts. Photographs then showed him standing alongside Sharaa and meeting other Syrian officials and military officers.

Aron Lund of the Century International think-tank said such attacks could dent confidence in Syria’s recovery, but they posed no threat to government control over the country.

“It’s a worrying phenomenon, but I don’t think we should overstate it. It’s been 1½ years and Islamic State hasn’t re-emerged in the way many feared,” he said.

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.

Deadly bombing 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.

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.

France is currently represented in Syria by a charge d’affaires who is not fully present in Damascus. Macron said both countries would appoint ambassadors, whom Sharaa said would be exchanged as soon as possible.