DAMASCUS: Syria said on Thursday a suicide bomber who killed a security forces member in Aleppo on New Year’s Eve was in the militant Islamic State group, which planned attacks on churches and gatherings.

The IS recently increased its attacks in areas of Syria controlled by Damascus, 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 policeman “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 Dec 13, two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed in an attack Washington blamed on a lone IS member in Syria’s Palmyra.

In retaliation, American forces struck scores of IS targets in Syria.

According to one media report, the US strikes killed five members of the group.

Syrian authorities have also carried out several operations against IS since then, saying they had killed a senior leader of the group on Dec 25.

In November, during a visit by Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa to Washington, Syria officially joined the US-led coalition against IS.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2026