Overview
- The U.N. attributes the plots to Saraya Ansar al‑Sunnah, assessed as an ISIS front that provides plausible deniability and greater operational reach.
- Targets included President Ahmad Al Shara, Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab, and Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani, with attempts reported in Aleppo and Daraa but without dates or operational details.
- U.N. experts estimate roughly 3,000 ISIS fighters remain across Iraq and Syria, with decentralized cells embedded across all Syrian governorates and sleeper networks in urban centers.
- Member states counted at least 129 ISIS‑attributed attacks from June to November 2025, largely against the SDF, using IEDs, vehicle bombs, assassinations, and ambushes, with later expansion into Idlib and Aleppo against Syrian forces.
- The report highlights institutional infiltration and detention pressures, linking the Dec. 13 Palmyra ambush to a newly recruited Syrian security forces member and noting late‑January transfers of ISIS detainees to Iraq plus over 25,740 people in the al‑Hol and Roj camps, most of them children.