Damascus, Syria – At a cafe in central Damascus, lines of chairs sat dormant outside an empty cafe. Mohammad al-Dahabi, the cafe’s owner, pulled away one chair, revealing a small crater on the floor.“This is where the explosion happened,” al-Dahabi said about the July 2 bomb blast that took place at the cafe close to Damascus’s Justice Palace and killed at least 10 people. “If it had gone off a half hour later, everyone would have [already] left for the day.”Damascus was hit by three explosions over the past week, with one on July 2 followed by two more blasts on July 7 near the Four Seasons Hotel, where French President Emmanuel Macron was staying during a visit to the Syrian capital. That attack killed one person and wounded 36.The attacks have rattled many people living in Damascus and pointed to the continuing challenges the Syrian government faces in bringing security to the capital. Some residents said years of instability had adapted them to dealing with such events, but there was still a fear when visiting certain parts of central Damascus.“Many residents felt Damascus was gradually returning to a more normal rhythm of life,” Navvar Saban, a researcher in security and military affairs at the Arab Center for Contemporary Syrian Studies, told Al Jazeera about life before this week’s attacks.Late Thursday evening, Syrian officials said they had apprehended an ISIL- (ISIS)-l …
