UN report reveals five foiled assassination attempts on Syria's president and two ministers by IS-linked militants last year.
The attempts targeted President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab, and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, according to a report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres released Wednesday to the Security Council. Prepared by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, it highlights Islamic State (IS) operatives exploiting security gaps to undermine Syria's new government.
Al-Sharaa, who ousted Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 after a 14-year civil war, faced plots in northern Aleppo and southern Daraa by Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, a group assessed as an IS front providing operational cover and deniability. No specific dates or further details on the attempts were disclosed.
The report notes IS remains active nationwide, with about 3,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, mostly in Syria, focusing attacks on security forces in the north and northeast. A December 13 ambush near Palmyra killed two US servicemen and one civilian, wounding three Americans and three Syrian troops; President Donald Trump responded with strikes on IS targets.
In northeastern Syria, over 25,740 people lingered in al-Hol and Roj camps as of December, more than 60% children, alongside thousands in other facilities. Following a ceasefire, Syrian forces assumed control of a major IS detainee camp after US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces withdrew. The US recently transferred IS suspects to Iraq for prosecution.
Al-Sharaa once led Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Qaida-linked but later disavowed; his government joined the anti-IS coalition in November.