Old ISIS bomb factory discovered in Raqqa

The Internal Security Forces (Asayish) of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria have located a former bomb factory of the terrorist militia ISIS in Raqqa. The workshop was discovered in the basement of a residential building in the historic city centre, not far from a church. During the search, various materials that could be used to build explosive devices were found in addition to a kilogram of explosives (TNT), several hand grenades, ready-to-use explosive devices and ammunition for DShK machine guns.

The bomb workshop was discovered this Sunday after a tip-off to the Internal Security Operations Centre. As a result, Asayish units moved into the Old City and cordoned off the building. Residents of adjacent houses were evacuated for their safety before explosives experts searched the suspicious flat. According to the Asayish press office, the entire find has been completely destroyed.

The Christian place of worship, located within walking distance of the old bomb factory, is the Armenian Catholic Martyrs’ Church. When ISIS overran other parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014 and declared Raqqa the capital of its “caliphate”, the church was seized and turned into a “Sharia court”. The so-called morality police “Hisbah” also had its headquarters in the church. Three years later, the building was reduced to rubble by air strikes by the international anti-ISIS coalition in the course of the liberation offensive for Raqqa.

The Armenian Catholic Martyrs’ Church of Raqqa was opened in the 1970s. It is named after the victims of the genocide of the Armenian nation that took place at the beginning of the 20th century in the then Ottoman Empire. Many of the at least 1.5 million people who fell victim to the genocide between 1915 and 1917 died on death marches into the desert of Syria. The members of the Christian community of Raqqa are mostly descendants of survivors of this genocide, which hundreds of thousands of Syriacs (Aramaic, Assyrian and Chaldean believers in Christianity) also paid for with their lives. The reconstruction of the church, initiated by the Christian aid organisation Free Burma Rangers with the support of the Raqqa Civil Council administration, had been underway for several years. In November last year, the church was reopened. However, services have not yet been held since then, as almost all Christian believers left the city during the ISIS siege.