Unknown individuals opened fire with automatic weapons early Monday morning in a nightclub in the center of Damascus, killing a woman, marking the second such attack in a week, according to a witness and an NGO.
The assailants' motivations were not immediately known, and the authorities did not respond to requests from AFP.
After Ahmad al-Sharaa came to power in December, having led the coalition of radical Islamist rebels that overthrew Bashar al-Assad, experts and intellectuals have expressed concerns about the Islamization of Syrian society. The international community has urged the new authorities to respect freedoms.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), "unidentified armed men attacked the al-Karouane nightclub in the Hijaz district with automatic weapons, killing a dancer and injuring several people."
"I heard gunshots at dawn and only dared to enter the club once the shooting had stopped," a witness told AFP under the condition of anonymity. "I saw a woman's body, bloodstains on the ground, a scene of chaos."
The nightclub was closed Monday morning by order of the security forces, according to a guard of a nearby building.
A resident of the street where the nightclub is located said a car carrying security forces had been parked at the corner of the street for several days, monitoring the area.
The attack occurred just hours after a video was circulated on social media, filmed by a surveillance camera, showing an armed group attacking another nightclub in central Damascus a few days ago.
In the video, authenticated by AFP, armed men can be seen approaching the nightclub and then beating panicked patrons, both men and women, with rifle butts as they flee. A woman is shown stumbling twice under the blows.
The Interior Ministry announced, according to the Syrian al-Ekhbariya channel on Sunday, the arrest of the attackers.
The video "shows a group of military personnel attacking civilians in a Damascus neighborhood. The perpetrators have been identified, arrested, and brought to justice," the ministry stated.
"Any aggression against citizens or public infrastructure will be punished by law," it emphasized.