Syria says IS planned New Year's Eve attacks on churches and social gatherings

Authorities in Syria said on Thursday that a suicide bomber who killed a security forces member in Aleppo on New Year's Eve was a member of the so-called Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which had planned attacks on churches and gatherings.

IS recently increased its attacks in areas of Syria controlled by the new Damascus authorities and was blamed for an attack last month in Palmyra that killed three US citizens.

The interior ministry said in a statement it had information that IS planned "suicide operations and attacks targeting New Year's celebrations in a number of governorates, particularly the city of Aleppo, by targeting churches and civilian gathering spots," prompting security to be stepped up.

In Aleppo's Bab al-Faraj neighbourhood, one officer "became suspicious of a person who was later found to be affiliated with Daesh," the statement said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

While being interrogated, the man "opened fire, resulting in the martyrdom of one of the police officers, and then he blew himself up, wounding two officers while they were trying to intervene to arrest him."

On 13 December, two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed in an attack Washington blamed on a lone IS gunman in Palmyra.

In retaliation, US forces struck several IS targets in Syria.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US strikes killed five members of the jihadist group.

Syrian authorities have also carried out several operations against IS since then, saying on 25 December they had killed a senior leader of the group.

In November, during a visit by Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Washington, Syria officially joined the US-led coalition against IS.

Sharaa's Islamist paramilitary group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fought IS at the height of the civil war.

Al-Sharaa's rule since the December 2024 lightning rebel offensive that ousted longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad has raised concerns among minorities, who have fallen victim to bouts of violence over the past year.

Civilians among the Alawite community to which al-Assad belonged were massacred on the coast in March and there were clashes in Druze-majority Suwayda province in July.

In June, a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people.

Syria's authorities blamed IS, but a shadowy Sunni extremist group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility.

Analysts have said Saraya Ansar al-Sunna serves as a front for the IS group.