Syria says ISIS planned New Year’s Eve attacks on churches across the country

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

ISIS recently increased its attacks in areas of Syria controlled by the Damascus authorities, and was blamed for an attack last month in Palmyra that killed three Americans.

The interior ministry says in a statement it had information that ISIS 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 neighborhood, one officer “became suspicious of a person who was later found to be affiliated with Daesh,” the statement says, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

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.”