 "The photograph was released by the Syrian state media after a suicide bombing near a church in Aleppo, Syria, on December 31, 2025, killed one person and injured two.")
During New Year’s Eve celebrations, a suicide bomber on Wednesday blew himself near a church in Syria’s Aleppo and killed one person and injured two others.
The suicide bombing is the latest attack to rattle Syria, laying bare jihadist-turned-president Ahmed al-Sharaa’s weak grip on the country. These attacks by jihadists and extremist groups that both oppose and support his regime have particularly singled out non-Sunni religious and ethnic minorities like Alawites and Christians.
The suicide bomber “most likely” had “ideological or organisational” links to the Islamic State, Syrian interior ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba said in a statement carried by The New York Times.
Al-Baba said security personnel were trying to arrest the man at a checkpoint after spotting his explosive belt when he detonated it. He added that the bomber was attempting to infiltrate a Christian area in the center of Aleppo and the plot was thwarted.
Al-Baba further said the plot may have been to target the nearby Church of the Forty Martyrs. He did not offer any details about the plot but added that the authorities were working to determine the bomber’s identity, how he had obtained the explosive belt, and his potential connections to terror cells.
In recent weeks, a series of major jihadist attacks have rocked Syria. Last week, at least eight people were killed and around 20 were injured in a blast during prayers at a mosque in Homs. Ansar al-Sunna, which analysts believe is a splinter group of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the blast. The same group had previously claimed responsibility for a blast in a church in Damascus in June that killed at least 25 people.
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View AllOn December 13, an attack attributed to the Islamic State killed three American nationals —two soldiers and a civilian interpreter— in Syria’s Palmyra. They were part of counter-terrorism operations against the Islamic State.
The United States retaliated with airstrikes on Islamic State-related sites in Syria on December 19 that the US Central Command said the terrorist group’s networks and infrastructure with the aim of preventing future attacks on American and partner forces. Last week, Jordan had also conducted airstrikes inside Syria to target arms- and drug-trafficking networks based in the country. Jordan had also joined US-led airstrikes on Dec. 19.