DAMASCUS: Syrian leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa vowed Monday that those involved in a “heinous” suicide attack on a Damascus church would face justice, as he called for unity in the diverse, multi-faith country.

The shooting and suicide bombing Sunday at the church in the working-class Dwelaa district of the Syrian capital killed 25 people and wounded 63, the health ministry said.

The authorities who took power after ousting longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December said the attacker was affiliated with the Daesh group, which has not yet claimed the attack.

“We promise... that we will work night and day, mobilizing all our specialized security agencies, to capture all those who participated in and planned this heinous crime and bring them to justice,” interim President Sharaa said in a statement.

The attack follows incidents of sectarian violence in recent months, with security one of the greatest challenges for the new authorities.

The attack “reminds us of the importance of solidarity, and unity of the government and the people in facing all that threatens our nation’s security and stability,” Sharaa said.

Interior Minister Anas Khattab and intelligence services chief Hussein Al-Salameh held an emergency meeting to discuss the investigations, the ministry said in a statement.

The attack was the first suicide bombing in a church in Syria since the country’s civil war erupted in 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

It was also the first attack of its kind in the Syrian capital since Assad’s ouster.

A prayer service at the church is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. (1500 GMT).

Since the new authorities took power, the international community has repeatedly urged them to protect minorities and ensure their participation in Syria’s transition, particularly after the recent violence.

Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine Al-Baba said Sunday that “the security of places of worship is a red line, and all efforts will be made to ensure people’s freedom to perform their religious rites.”Daesh “aims to sow sectarian division and incite all components of Syrian society to take up arms, seeking to show that the Syrian state is unable to protect its communities and citizens,” he told a press conference.

The top cleric of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, Grand Mufti Osama Al-Rifai, condemned acts of violence and terrorism in a statement Monday.

“We express our complete rejection of targeting places of worship and terrorizing believers,” he said.

Foreign condemnation of the attack continued to roll in on Monday.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye would not allow extremists to drag Syria back into chaos and instability, vowing that Turkiye would “continue to support the Syrian government’s fight against terrorism.”

Turkiye, which is close to the new authorities, has repeatedly offered its operational and military support to fight Daesh and other militant threats.

French President Emmanuel Macron also denounced the “horrible” attack, while the EU said it “stands in solidarity” with Syria in combating ethnic and religious violence.

“It is a grave reminder of the need to intensify efforts against the terrorist threat and to ensure the enduring defeat of Daesh and other terrorist organizations,” spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said.

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed anger after the attack on the Greek Orthodox Church, calling on the new authorities “to take concrete measures to protect all ethnic and religious minorities.”

Syria’s Christian community has shrunk from around one million before the war to fewer than 300,000 due to waves of displacement and emigration.

Daesh seized large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in the early years of the civil war, declaring a cross-border “caliphate” in 2014.

The militants were territorially defeated in Syria 2019 but have maintained a presence, particularly in the country’s vast desert.

TEHRAN: Israel hit Revolutionary Guard sites and Evin prison in Tehran on the 11th day of the war Monday, in what it said were its most powerful strikes yet on the Iranian capital.

Iran, in turn, fired missile barrages at Israel and vowed retaliation against the United States after American strikes on the Islamic republic’s nuclear sites a day earlier.

Loud explosions rocked Tehran, where Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military hit sites with “unprecedented force,” adding to speculation that it is seeking to topple Iran’s clerical leadership.

The targets included Evin prison, which Katz said “holds political prisoners and regime opponents,” as well as command centers for the domestic Basij paramilitary and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Iranian media and the Israeli military said Israel also struck Fordo, a key nuclear enrichment facility buried deep in the mountains south of Tehran.

The military said it had struck Fordo on Monday “in order to obstruct access routes” to the site, which Israel’s ally the United States hit the previous day with massive bunker buster bombs.

President Donald Trump boasted that Sunday’s US strikes on three key sites had “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities, but other officials said it was too soon to assess the impact on Iran’s atomic program, which Israel and some Western states consider an unacceptable threat.

Sirens sounded across Israel on Monday and AFP journalists reported blasts over Jerusalem and people fleeing to shelters in Tel Aviv.

Iranian media said Israel’s strikes hit a power supply system in Tehran, triggering temporary outages.

In Israel, the national electricity company reported “damage near a strategic infrastructure facility” in the south that disrupted the power supply, without naming the location or specifying the cause.

Israel’s military censorship rules bar the publication of some details about damage in Israel.

Israeli strikes on Iran have killed more than 400 people, Iran’s health ministry has said. Iran’s attacks on Israel have killed 24 people, according to official figures.

After the US strikes, global markets reacted nervously, with oil prices jumping more than four percent early Monday but dipping later in the day.

China urged both Iran and Israel to prevent the conflict from spilling over, warning of potential economic fallout.

Iranian armed forces chief Abdolrahim Mousavi said in a video statement published on state TV that Washington’s bombing “will not go unanswered.”

“We will take firm action against the American mistake,” he added.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on China to help deter Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said closing the strategic strait would be “extremely dangerous.”

With Iran threatening US bases in the region, the State Department issued a worldwide alert cautioning Americans abroad.

In Bahrain, home to a major US naval base, the US embassy said it had “temporarily shifted a portion of its employees to local telework,” citing “heightened regional tensions.”

Meanwhile, international oil firms including BP and Total evacuated some of their foreign staff from southern Iraq, the state-owned Basra Oil Company said.

After the Pentagon stressed the goal of US intervention was not to topple the Iranian government, Trump openly toyed with the idea.

“If the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change???” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

His press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Trump was “still interested and engaging in” diplomacy.

She suggested, however, that Iranians could overthrow their government if it did not agree to a diplomatic solution.

At a Pentagon press briefing, top US general Dan Caine said “initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage.”

Speaking ahead of a NATO summit this week, the alliance’s chief Mark Rutte said Tehran should not be allowed a nuclear weapon, calling it his “greatest fear,” while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “there is no reason to criticize what America did.”

Rafael Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that craters were visible at the Fordo facility, but it had not been possible to assess the underground damage.

“Armed attacks on nuclear facilities should never take place,” he added.

Iran has consistently denied seeking an atomic bomb, and Grossi has said there was no evidence to suggest it was doing so despite the Islamic republic being the only non-nuclear armed state to enrich uranium to 60 percent.

The IAEA said on Monday that Tehran had informed it of “special measures to protect nuclear material” when the Israeli campaign began.

The UN agency also said it was seeking access to Iranian nuclear sites to “account for” stockpiles of highly enriched uranium.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, had accused the United States and Israel of deciding to “blow up” nuclear diplomacy with their attacks.