UN report: five foiled assassination plots against Syria’s leader

According to a UN report presented on February 12th, Syria’s interim leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, and two senior cabinet ministers were the targets of five foiled assassination plots last year, as reported by The National and agencies on February 12th.

The plots were attributed to Saraya Ansar Al Sunnah, a group assessed as “ being a front for ISIS.” Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani were also among those targeted, according to a UN Office of Counterterrorism report.

The document estimates that ISIS currently maintains around 3,000 fighters across the wider Syria–Iraq region, the majority of them based in Syria.

The UN report also states that the ISIS-linked group carried out at least 129 attacks between June and November against Syrian forces. Around 70 per cent of these attacks targeted the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, but since early November, Syrian military forces have also come under attack.

Ahmed Al-Sharaa, a former jihadist once wanted by the United States for his ties to Al-Qaeda, has in recent months gained growing international legitimacy.

He has emerged as a favoured interlocutor for US President Donald Trump and has toured capitals across the Gulf and Europe since his alliance seized Damascus in December 2025, a diplomatic strategy that ultimately led to the removal of his name from international terrorism lists.

 However, while Al-Sharaa has gained renewed respectability abroad, analysts warn that he remains politically fragile at home. International breakthroughs contrast sharply with continued instability inside Syria. Sectarian attacks in Alawite and Druze regions have highlighted how precarious the situation remains.

As the new government moves to integrate former rebel fighters into the national army, extremist groups such as ISIS are reportedly attempting to recruit disaffected fighters.

The renewed activity by ISIS-linked militias has also followed Syria’s gradual realignment with Washington. After a historic visit to the US in November 2025, the first after decades of frozen relations,

President Al-Sharaa joined the US-led anti-ISIS coalition; in June 2025, US Ambassador to Damascus Tom Barrack expressed concern that Al-Sharaa could be assassinated because of his push for governmental reform.

Threats have also come from neighbouring Israel. In July 2025, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, publicly called for the assassination of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, describing him as a terrorist and a murderer.

His remarks came amid the deployment of Syrian army and security forces in the city of Suweida, where deadly sectarian violence involving the Druze community had erupted.

The National and agencies, Maghrebi.org