A report by UN Secretary-General António Guterres said President Ahmad al-Sharaa was targeted in northern Aleppo and southern Daraa, and the attacks were planned by the Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah group, believed to be acting as a front for IS. Details of the exact date of the assassination attempt on al-Shara, as well as on Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani, have not been published, AP writes.
The UN warns that IS continues to seek to destabilize the new Syrian government and is exploiting security gaps in the country. According to estimates, Al-Sharaa is one of the main targets of that organization, while the aforementioned group serves to conceal the direct involvement of IS and strengthen its operational capacities.
Al-Sharaa took power after his rebel forces ousted longtime President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, ending a 14-year civil war. He previously led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group once linked to Al-Qaeda. His government joined the international coalition against IS in November.
According to the UN, IS continues to operate throughout Syria, especially in the north and northeast, where it attacks security forces. In the attack near Palmyra on December 13, two American soldiers and one American civilian were killed, while several people were wounded, after which the US launched military operations against IS.
IS is estimated to have around 3,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, most of them in Syria. At the end of January, the US began transferring detained IS members from northeastern Syria to Iraq, where they will be tried. According to the report, at the end of December, more than 25,700 people, over 60% of whom were children, were in al-Hol and Roj camps, with thousands in other detention centers.
(Vijesti.ba)
