Syria's president and 2 top ministers were targets of 5 foiled
assassination attempts, UN says
[February 12, 2026]
By EDITH M. LEDERER
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Syria’s president, interior minister and foreign
minister were the targets of five foiled assassination attempts last
year, the U.N. chief said in a report on threats posed by Islamic State
militants released Wednesday.
The report said President Ahmad al-Sharaa was targeted in northern
Aleppo, the country’s most populous province, and southern Daraa by a
group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, which was assessed to be a front
for the Islamic State group.
The report, issued by Secretary-General António Guterres and prepared by
the U.N. Office of Counter-Terrorism, gave no dates or details of the
attempts against al-Sharaa or Syrian Interior Minister Anas Hasan
Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.
The assassination attempts are more evidence that the militant group
remains intent on undermining the new Syrian government and “actively
exploiting security vacuums and uncertainty” in Syria, the report said.
It said al-Sharaa was “assessed to be a primary target” of the Islamic
State. And it said the front group provided IS with plausible
deniability and "improved operational capacity.”
Al-Sharaa has led Syria since his rebel forces ousted longtime Syrian
President Bashar Assad in December 2024, ending a 14-year civil war.
Al-Sharaa was previously the leader of Hayar Tahrir al-Sham, a militant
group that was once affiliated with al-Qaida, although it later cut
ties.
In November, his government joined the international coalition formed to
counter the Islamic State group, which once controlled a large part of
Syria.
The U.N. counter-terrorism experts said the militant group still
operates across the country, primarily attacking security forces,
particularly in the north and northeast.
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A vehicle pauses as a convoy of Syria's Interior Ministry forces
passes through en route to the town of Qamishli, where the forces
deploy under a ceasefire agreement with the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF), near the village of Mazraat al-Nahar,
northeastern Syria, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
In one ambush attack on Dec. 13 on U.S. and Syrian forces near
Palmyra, two U.S. servicemen and an American civilian were killed
and three Americans and three members of Syria's security forces
were wounded. President Donald Trump retaliated, launching military
operations to eliminate IS fighters.
According to the U.N. counter-terrorism experts, the Islamic State
group maintains an estimated 3,000 fighters across Iraq and Syria,
the majority of them based in Syria.
The U.S. military in late January began transferring IS detainees
who were held in northeastern Syria to Iraq to ensure they remain in
secure facilities. Iraq has said it will prosecute the militants.
Syrian government forces had taken control of a sprawling camp
housing thousands of IS detainees following the withdrawal of the
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as part of a ceasefire with the
Kurdish fighters.
The report released Wednesday to the U.N. Security Council said as
of December, before the ceasefire deal, more than 25,740 people
remained in the al-Hol and Roj camps in the northeast, more than 60%
of them children, with thousands more in other detention centers.
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