Syrian authorities say they disrupted an Islamic State plan to carry out coordinated attacks against churches and public gatherings during New Year’s Eve celebrations, prompting heightened security measures around houses of worship.
In a statement released Thursday, the Interior Ministry said intelligence indicated that Islamic State militants were preparing “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,” according to AFP.
The ministry confirmed that one security officer was killed and two others were injured in Aleppo’s Bab al-Faraj neighborhood when a suspect believed to be linked to the Islamic State opened fire and detonated explosives as officers attempted to arrest him after growing suspicious of his behavior.
Authorities said the threat led to expanded preventive security measures across Aleppo and other areas. “We took heightened security measures as part of a preemptive response, including strengthening protection around churches, deploying fixed and mobile patrols, and setting up checkpoints across the city,” the ministry said, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
The attempted attacks come only months after Syria’s Christian community experienced its deadliest incident in more than a century, when a bombing at Mar Elias Church in Damascus killed more than two dozen people, recalling memories of the 1860 Damascus Massacre.
Syria formally joined the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State in November. The extremist group once controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq in the mid-2010s before losing its territorial stronghold through sustained military campaigns led by the United States and its allies.
Other chapters of the Islamic State have formed across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. In areas under Islamic State control, thousands of religious minorities have been killed or forced into sexual slavery.
Security analysts have warned that Islamic State fighters have been attempting to regroup in Syria and Iraq by exploiting security gaps. Military sources have cautioned that sleeper cells were being reactivated and recruitment efforts intensified amid a reduced U.S. military footprint in the region.
In November, ahead of Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa’s high-profile meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, Syrian security forces conducted 61 nationwide raids, detaining 71 individuals suspected of involvement with the Islamic State, according to official figures.
