BEIRUT (AP) — TheIslamic State grouphas blasted Syria's interim president calling him a "puppet without a soul" controlled by Western countries, adding that his fate eventually will be similar to that of ousted leader Bashar Assad.
In an audio message released late Saturday by the group's spokesman, who identifies himself as Abu Huzaifa al-Ansari, he called on IS followers around the world to attack Jewish and Western targets as they have in past years.
Al-Ansari sent greetings to IS fighters from the group's leaderAbu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshiwho was named as the head of the group three years ago.
The audio is the first to be released by the group in months and comes after IS was blamed for attacks that left dozens dead or wounded in recent months inSyria, Iraq,Pakistanand other parts of the world.
In December, the group was blamed for an attack in central Syria thatleft three Americansdead and triggered intense U.S. airstrikes on the extremists' suspected hideouts in the country.
Despite its defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, IS sleeper cells still carry out deadly attacks in both countries, where they once declared a caliphate.
The U.N. chief said earlier this month in a reporton threats posed by ISthat Syria's president, interior minister and foreign minister were the targets of five foiled assassination attempts last year.
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In December 2024, insurgents led by now interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, marched to Damascus andremoved then-President Bashar Assadfrom power, striking a severe blow to Iran's influence in the war-torn country. Assad belonged to the minority Alawite sect in the predominantly Sunni Muslim country.
Since then, al-Sharaa, a former leader of al-Qaida's branch in Syria, has improved his relations with Western countries and last year becamethe first Syrian head of stateto visit Washington since Syria's independence in 1946.
Al-Ansari said that Iran and Assad in Syria were replaced "with a regime that is subjected to American influence."
"Syria today is ruled by the Crusaders after they placed a leader who is a puppet without a soul," al-Ansari i said. He vowed new attacks in the country saying that "Syria has entered a new era of defense and the convoys of jihad will eventually march in Syria."
The audio, which is supposed to mark the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan did not mention the transfer of 5,704 suspectedIS detaineesfrom prisons in northeast Syria to Iraq in recent weeks. Al-Ansari only said that everyone is scared of the detainees whom the Americans, Shiites and Kurdish fighters are doing all they can to make sure they don't escape.
Al-Ansari also did not mentional-Hol campthat used to house more than 24,000 people, mostly women and children linked to IS, that is now almost empty after government forces took control of it last month from the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
He acknowledged that IS lost fighters over the past two years because of attacks by the U.S.-led coalition against IS. The Syrian government officially joined the coalition in November.
