UN: Syria’s president, top ministers survived five assassination plots

The United Nations has revealed that Syria’s president, interior minister, and foreign minister were targeted in five foiled assassination attempts last year, highlighting the continued threat posed by Islamic State militants in the country.

The report, released by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres and prepared by the U.N. Office of Counter-Terrorism, said President Ahmed al-Sharaa was specifically targeted in northern Aleppo and southern Daraa by a group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, assessed to be a front for the Islamic State, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

While the report did not provide exact dates or details of the assassination attempts against al-Sharaa, Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab, or Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani, it warned that the militant group remains intent on undermining Syria’s new government and is “actively exploiting security vacuums and uncertainty” across the country.

Al-Sharaa, who took power in December 2024 after rebel forces ousted longtime President Bashar Assad, was described in the report as a primary target of the Islamic State. Experts said the front group enabled IS to carry out operations while maintaining plausible deniability and enhancing its operational capacity.

Before leading Syria, al-Sharaa headed Hayar Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group formerly affiliated with al-Qaida. In November, his government joined the international coalition to counter the Islamic State, which once controlled large swathes of Syrian territory.

Despite this, U.N. counter-terrorism experts note that IS continues to operate across Syria, primarily targeting security forces in the north and northeast. In one attack on 13 December near Palmyra, two U.S. servicemen and an American civilian were killed, while three Americans and three Syrian security personnel were wounded. President Donald Trump responded with military operations against IS fighters.

The report estimates that the Islamic State maintains roughly 3,000 fighters across Iraq and Syria, the majority of them in Syria. In late January, the U.S. military began transferring IS detainees from northeastern Syria to Iraq for secure detention and prosecution.

Following the withdrawal of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces under a ceasefire with Kurdish fighters, Syrian government forces took control of a sprawling camp housing thousands of IS detainees. According to the U.N., as of December 2025, more than 25,740 people remained in the al-Hol and Roj camps, over 60% of them children, with thousands more held in other detention centres.

The report underscores the persistent security challenges facing Syria’s new government as it seeks to consolidate control and counter a resilient Islamic State threat.

By Aghakazim Guliyev