Syrian security forces disrupted an Islamic State plan for suicide attacks on churches and gatherings in Aleppo, killing one bomber after an officer’s death.
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities said a suicide bomber who killed a police officer in Aleppo on New Year’s Eve was an Islamic State member.
The interior ministry stated it had intelligence that IS planned “suicide operations and attacks targeting New Year’s celebrations” focusing on Aleppo’s churches and civilian gathering spots.
Security was heightened across several governorates in response to the threat.
In Aleppo’s Bab al-Faraj district, an officer grew suspicious of an individual later identified as an IS affiliate.
The suspect opened fire during interrogation, killing one officer before detonating his explosive vest and wounding two others.
This incident follows a recent increase in IS attacks within government-controlled Syrian territory.
Washington blamed IS for a December 13 attack in Palmyra that killed two US soldiers and an American civilian.
US forces subsequently conducted retaliatory strikes against numerous IS targets in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported those US strikes killed five jihadist members.
Syrian forces have also conducted several anti-IS operations since, announcing the death of a senior group leader on December 25.
Syria officially joined the US-led coalition against IS during President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s November visit to Washington.
Sharaa, an Islamist former jihadist whose group fought IS, has ruled since Bashar al-Assad’s fall in December 2024.
His rule has raised concerns among minorities amid recent sectarian violence.
Civilians from Assad’s Alawite community were massacred on the coast in March, and clashes occurred in Druze-majority Sweida province in July.
A June suicide bombing at a Damascus church killed 25 people.
Syrian authorities blamed IS for that attack, though a shadowy Sunni extremist group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility.
Analysts have described Saraya Ansar al-Sunna as a front for the Islamic State group.
