DAMASCUS, Syria — The day after last month's deadly suicide attack on a church outside Syria's capital, hundreds of Christians marched in Damascus chanting against foreign fighters and calling for them to leave the country.
The June 22 attack on the Mar Elias church, killing at least 25 people and wounding dozens, was the latest alarm for religious minorities who say they have suffered one blow after another since President Bashar Assad was removed from power in December.
Muslim militant groups led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which is headed by Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa, now control much of the country. While the new government has condemned attacks on minorities, many accuse it of looking the other way or being unable to control the armed groups it is trying to absorb.
Among the groups are thousands of foreign fighters, who often hold a more extreme Islamic ideology than many of their Syrian counterparts. In a highly unusual move, al-Sharaa early on promoted a half-dozen foreign fighters to ranks as high as brigadier general.
How Syria's new leaders address the treatment of minorities, and the presence of foreign fighters, is being closely watched by the United States and others moving to lift long-standing sanctions on the country.
Fears of a mass Christian exodus
Syria's top Greek Orthodox religious authority has called the church bombing the worst crime against Christians in Damascus since 1860, when thousands were massacred within days by Muslim attackers.
Two weeks after the church attack, it is not clear who was behind it. The government blamed the extremist Islamic State group, which did not claim responsibility as it usually does. A little-known group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said a member carried out the attack, but the government called the group merely a cover for IS.