June 15 (Reuters) – Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Monday that one of its security personnel had been killed as its forces thwarted an attack by two Islamic State militants on a command headquarters of the country’s internal security forces in the city of Raqqa.
According to a ministry statement, two suicide attackers attempted to storm the facility. Security personnel engaged the pair, neutralising one of them, while the second detonated an explosive vest after being surrounded.
Three security personnel were also wounded in the attack, the statement added.
Earlier, the Syrian state news agency had cited the Interior Ministry’s spokesperson as saying that preliminary information indicated at least two ministry personnel were killed in a suicide attack on a ministry camp in Raqqa.
In February, Islamic State declared a new phase of operations against the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa and has since carried out a spate of attacks, including one that killed four Syrian security personnel near Raqqa.
Last year, Sharaa’s government joined the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
Sharaa himself fought Islamic State when he was leader of the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front during Syria’s civil war. He severed ties with al Qaeda in 2016.
At the peak of its power during the Syrian civil war a decade ago, Islamic State controlled around a quarter or more of Syria, before being driven out of the territory by a U.S.-led coalition and other foes.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din, Tala Ramadan, and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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