The Syrian president and the interior and foreign ministers were the targets of five failed assassination attempts last year, the United Nations said, quoted by the Associated Press, in a report on the threat posed by the “Islamic State“ (IS), published yesterday.
According to the report, President Ahmed al-Sharaa was the target of an attack in the northern part of Syria's most populous province – Aleppo, as well as in the southern province of Daraa, by the group “Saraya Ansar al-Sunna“, which is believed to be a front for “Islamic State“.
The report, published by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and prepared by the UN Office for Counter-Terrorism, did not provide dates or details of the assassination attempts on al-Sharaa, who was the main target, nor on Syrian Interior Minister Anas Hassan Khattab or Foreign Minister Assad al-Shibani.
The assassination attempts are further evidence that the Islamist group remains determined to undermine the new Syrian government and is “actively exploiting security gaps and the climate of insecurity“ in Syria, the report said.
It said the front group had provided IS with a credible means of denying its involvement and “enhanced operational capacity”.
According to UN counter-terrorism experts, the Islamist group is still active in Syria, mainly by attacking security forces, mainly in the north and northeast of the country.
IS maintains around 3,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, most of them in Syria, the report said.
US forces deployed in Syria as part of the international anti-jihadist coalition have withdrawn from the At Tanf base near the Jordanian border, Agence France-Presse reported, citing two Syrian military officials.
“US forces completed the withdrawal from At Tanf today,” a Syrian official said. military official, adding that they had been moved to the Al-Burj base in Jordan.
“The Syrian Ministry of Defense today sent troops to fill the gap left by the Americans' departure“, he added.
A second source confirmed the withdrawal, specifying that the American forces had begun the process “15 days“.
The Americans “will continue to coordinate from Jordan“, he said.
Meanwhile, international coalition forces remain deployed in northeastern Syria - in areas that were until recently under the control of Kurdish forces.
After the withdrawal from At Tanf, the American troops in Syria remain mainly stationed at the Kasrak base in the eastern province of Hasakah, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported – a UK-based organisation with an extensive network of sources in Syria.
The US established an international coalition after the jihadist group “Islamic State“ (IS) seized vast areas of territory in Syria in 2014, taking advantage of the civil war, as it did in Iraq.
IS was defeated in Syria in 2019, mainly by Kurdish forces supported by the coalition. In Iraq, the group was defeated in 2017.