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Syria’s president and two senior ministers were targeted in five failed assassination attempts, according to a report by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on threats posed by Daesh released Wednesday.
The report said Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani were targeted in separate plots.
The report said Sharaa was targeted in northern Aleppo province and southern Daraa by a group known as Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, which was assessed to be a front for Daesh.
The document, prepared by the U.N. Office of Counter-Terrorism, provided no dates or operational details regarding the assassination attempts.
It said Sharaa was “assessed to be a primary target” of the Daesh and that the front group offered the militant organization plausible deniability while improving its operational capacity.
The report said the assassination plots were evidence that Daesh remains intent on undermining the new Syrian government and is “actively exploiting security vacuums and uncertainty” in the country.
Sharaa has led Syria since his rebel forces ousted longtime president Bashar Assad in December 2024, ending a 14-year civil war.
He previously led Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group once affiliated with al-Qaeda, before severing ties.
In November, his government joined the international coalition formed to counter Daesh, which once controlled large parts of Syria.
U.N. counterterrorism experts said the militant group continues to operate across Syria, primarily targeting security forces in the north and northeast.
In an ambush attack on Dec. 13 near Palmyra, two U.S. servicemen and an American civilian were killed, while three Americans and three members of Syria’s security forces were wounded.
U.S. President Donald Trump responded by launching military operations aimed at eliminating Daesh members.
According to U.N. experts, Daesh maintains an estimated 3,000 members across Iraq and Syria, most of them based in Syria.
The U.S. military began transferring Daesh detainees held in northeastern Syria to Iraq in late January to ensure they remain in secure facilities.
Iraqi authorities have said they will prosecute the militants.
Syrian government forces took control of a large camp housing thousands of Daesh detainees after the withdrawal of the U.S.-backed SDF under a ceasefire agreement.
The report submitted to the U.N. Security Council said that as of December, before the ceasefire, over 25,740 people remained in the al-Hol and Roj camps in northeastern Syria, more than 60% of them children, with thousands more held in other detention centers.
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