DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — At least six people were killed after an explosive device was detonated Thursday in a cafe in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syria's Health Ministry said.
The explosion near the main courthouse complex left 22 others wounded, the ministry said as reported by Syria's state-run Al-Ikhbariya network.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. Security forces rushed to the cafe and cordoned off the area as they investigate the scene of the attack.
The Interior Ministry is set to announce its initial findings soon, said Damascus Governor Maher Idlibi. Idlibi said the device appeared “primitive” and vowed that the perpetrators will be held to account.
A video circulating on social media showed several wounded people lying on the ground, with police officers nearby. Ambulances later rushed to the scene treating people on site and taking the more severely wounded to the hospital.
Jalal Aljanani, who owns a restaurant next door, ran towards the cafe the moment he heard the explosion and was horrified by the sight of the bodies on the floor.
“We carried the victims to the cars until the traffic police arrived,” he told The Associated Press, his shirt covered in blood. "Many of them had suffered severe impact injuries, and almost all of them were bleeding.”
Since overthrowing the Assad dynasty and taking power in a lightning insurgency in December 2024, Syria’s new rulers have cracked down on militants from the extremist Islamic State group in an attempt to thwart attacks in and around the capital.
During the uprising turned- war in Syria that began in 2011, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa led the Hayat Tahrir al Sham group, formerly affiliated with al-Qaeda, but since coming to power has vowed to protect Syrians of all backgrounds, especially religious and ethnic minorities.
Al-Sharaa has reasserted the government's full authority across the vast majority of the country, wresting control back from extremist groups or Kurdish-led forces. However, he still contends with security concerns as he tries to stabilize the country.
Security agencies frequently announce that they have raided IS cells and thwarted attacks reportedly targeting minorities and busy commercial areas. However, several incidents such as suicide bombing in a Church in July 2025 have raised concerns among many Syrians in Damascus and across the country.
— Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.
Syrian security inspects the site after an explosive device was detonated in a cafe near the main courthouse complex, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, July 2, 2026 (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syrian security inspects the site after an explosive device was detonated in a cafe near the main courthouse complex, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, July 2, 2026 (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Syrian security inspects the site after an explosive device was detonated in a cafe near the main courthouse complex, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, July 2, 2026 (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia hammered Kyiv in an 11-hour drone and missile attack overnight into Thursday morning, killing at least 21 civilians in the city and injuring scores more in what Moscow said was retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities.
Loud explosions shook the Ukrainian capital, where more than 50,000 people sheltered in subway stations after authorities issued air raid warnings, the Kyiv Metro said. Emergency crews dug through the rubble of collapsed and charred apartment buildings all day in search of victims.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the bombardment was in response to Ukraine’s recent barrage of long-range strikes, which have caused severe fuel shortages and put pressure on President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine's frequent attacks inside Russia — described by Zelenskyy as a 40-day blitz — have especially targeted oil refineries, causing a fuel crisis that has frustrated Russians already feeling the war’s economic toll.
More than four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine’s technological advances in drone engineering have in recent months given it an edge, analysts and Western officials say. Its strikes on supply routes behind the front line have robbed the Russian army of momentum on the battlefield and made its progress slow and costly, they say.
Kyiv’s forces have especially targeted supplies to Crimea, triggering the worst fuel crisis on the Black Sea peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 and delivering a blow to the Kremlin’s narrative that Moscow is winning the war.
Ukrainian officials say they are trying to force Putin to the negotiating table, but so far Moscow's response has been to hit back.
Diplomatic efforts to end the war, most recently by the Trump administration, haven’t produced results. President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy are expected to attend next week’s NATO summit in Turkey.
Putin thinks that time is on his side, that Western support will peter out and that Ukraine’s resistance will eventually collapse under pressure from strategic bombing, analysts say.
The attack killed 21 people in Kyiv, according to the country's Emergency Service. More than 90 others were injured, said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it was a “night of horror” in the capital. Kyiv had a pre-war population of roughly 3 million people, but the current number of residents is unknown.
Damage was recorded in 30 locations across the city, mainly residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. Some 20 residential buildings were damaged, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
Flashes from exploding drones and missiles lit up the night, and loud booms echoed through Kyiv. Tracers from air defense fire streaked through the air as a huge pall of black smoke rose into the sky.
Kyiv resident Serhii Budko said three or four ballistic missiles hit his district of the city. “We were inside the shelter and felt the shelter shaking — the ceiling and floor, everything,” the 24-year-old told The Associated Press.
In Kyiv's Desnianskyi district, people were trapped inside a damaged nine-story residential building, and in the Darnytskyi district six levels of a nine-story building collapsed.
In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, meanwhile, a Russian guided bomb strike killed a 7-year-old girl and wounded four other people, including an 11-year-old girl, all members of the same family, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.
Russia’s General Staff chief Gen. Valery Gerasimov reported the results of the “massive retaliatory strike” to Putin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. The bombardment was “exclusively against military or military-linked targets,” Peskov said.
Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine have repeatedly hit civilian areas. More than 16,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.
No reliable figures are available for battlefield casualties in the war. A report earlier this year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, estimated that up to 1.8 million soldiers have been killed, wounded or gone missing on both sides, with Russian troops accounting for most of that number.
The attack used “high-precision long-range weapons” and drones to strike weapons factories and energy facilities in and around Kyiv, and “military airfield infrastructure” in other parts of Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry’s statement said.
In all, Russia fired 74 missiles and 496 drones in the attack, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukraine's air defenses have improved throughout the war, especially in countering Russian drones. But it is harder to stop ballistic missiles, which accounted for roughly a third of the missiles fired overnight.
Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said in April that the country's weapons factories meet up to 75% of its military’s needs. But he and other Ukrainian officials have pleaded with partner countries to supply more Patriot systems that offer the best protection from Russian aerial attacks.
Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries overnight in the Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow, starting a fire, Ukraine's General Staff said.
Also, Ukrainian forces struck a railway bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, it said. The bridge was used by Russian forces to transport personnel, weapons and military supplies, according to the General Staff.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A residential apartment building is seen damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Elderly Liudmyla Tsapkova sits in her damaged apartment after the Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
People look at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
People react at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
People look at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A residential apartment building is seen damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Smoke rises over the city center after a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A woman walks past a burning apartment building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
An apartment building burns after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
A woman looks at an apartment building burning after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, July 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
