Kathrine Frich
Syria’s fragile post-Assad transition has been shaken by revelations of assassination attempts targeting its new leadership.
A United Nations report details multiple failed plots aimed at President Ahmed al-Sharaa and senior officials amid ongoing instability.
Assassination attempts
According to the UN report, five assassination plots targeting Sharaa or senior ministers were disrupted last year.
The document states that Sharaa was the “primary target” of Islamic State and was targeted in two separate attempts — one in northern Aleppo and another in southern Daraa.
The Guardian reports that the attacks were linked to Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, described as an IS front group that also carried out a church bombing in Damascus last summer.
A regional intelligence official previously confirmed that Syrian authorities had received information from a neighbouring country, helping to thwart the plots.
Security vacuum
The report links the assassination attempts to instability following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024.
IS has intensified recruitment efforts since then, portraying Sharaa — who previously led an Islamist rebel faction — as an apostate.
The group circulated images of Sharaa meeting US President Donald Trump, presenting them as evidence that he had aligned with the West.
The UN assessment says IS is “actively exploiting security gaps and uncertainty” in Syria as it seeks to destabilise the new government.
Renewed threat
The report estimates that Islamic State maintains around 3,000 fighters across Syria and Iraq, most of them operating inside Syria.
Analysts say the group has regrouped in recent months, taking advantage of weakened state control and an influx of weapons after Assad’s forces abandoned positions.
Damascus joined the international coalition against IS in November and has since assumed control of prisons and camps in northeastern Syria holding suspected militants and their families.
Among them is the al-Hawl camp, home to nearly 25,000 relatives of suspected IS members. Experts have described it as a “ticking time bomb” for the extremist organisation.
Islamic State has already claimed several attacks since Assad’s fall, including a mid-December assault on American and Syrian troops that killed three Americans and wounded three Syrians.
Sources: Digi24, The Guardian, United Nations report
