DAMASCUS, Syria: Syrian authorities said on Thursday that the Islamic State (IS) group had planned suicide attacks on churches and civilian gathering spots during New Year’s Eve celebrations, after a suspected IS bomber killed a member of the security forces in the northern city of Aleppo.
Islamic State recently increased its attacks in Syria, and was blamed for an attack last month in Palmyra that killed three Americans.
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 tightened.
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 December 13, two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed in an attack Washington blamed on a lone IS gunman in Syria’s Palmyra.
In retaliation, American forces struck scores of IS targets in Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the US strikes killed five members of the group.
Syrian authorities have also carried out several operations against IS since then, saying on December 25 they had killed a senior leader of the group.
In November, during a visit by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Washington, Syria officially joined the US-led coalition against IS.
In June, a suicide bombing in a Damascus church killed 25 people. Syria’s authorities blamed IS for the attack.
