A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt during an encounter with a police patrol in the Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding two members of the security forces, Reuters reports, citing a Syrian government spokesperson.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba told the state-owned Al Ekhbariya news agency that “the person who detonated an explosive belt within the patrol in Aleppo is believed to have an ideological or organisational background linked to Islamic State,” adding that investigations were underway to determine the attacker’s identity.
According to Ekhbariya TV, citing a security source, the attacker blew himself up while being searched by the patrol after raising suspicion. No organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The incident follows a deadly assault earlier this month in which two US Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria by a suspected ISIS attacker who targeted a convoy of American and Syrian forces before being shot dead.
In response, US and Jordanian forces hit more than 70 ISIS targets in central Syria using over 100 precision munitions on December 19. The massive coordinated strike involved dozens of fighter jets, attack helicopters, and artillery units that destroyed terrorist infrastructure and weapons depots.
ISIS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a "caliphate" in land it controlled.
Several military offensives, including ones backed by a US-led international coalition, have since seen ISIS lose most areas it once controlled, including the loss of their de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria.
However, ISIS sleeper cells remain in the area and continue to carry out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq.