DAMASCUS, Jan 1, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - A suicide bomber killed one member of Syria's security forces and wounded two others while being apprehended in the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

In a statement, the ministry said one member of its personnel "was killed and two others were wounded, as a result of a suicide bombing carried out by a person who was being... searched by police officers at a checkpoint in the Bab al-Faraj neighbourhood of Aleppo".

Aleppo governor Azzam al-Gharib said security forces were "carrying out their duties to secure" New Year's celebrations in the city when "a terrorist was spotted attempting to breach the internal security checkpoints".

"During the arrest operation, one of the heroic security personnel managed to physically subdue him, at which point the terrorist detonated his explosive belt," Gharib added.

Interior ministry spokesman Noureddine al-Baba told state television the individual was "likely to have an ideological or organisational background with Daesh", using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) group.

IS recently increased its attacks in areas of Syria controlled by the Damascus authorities.

A December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and an American civilian. Washington blamed the attack on a lone IS gunman in Syria's Palmyra.

In retaliation, US forces conducted strikes targeting scores of IS targets in Syria.

The strikes killed five members of the jihadist group, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian authorities also carried out several operations against IS since, saying it killed a senior leader of the group on Thursday.

In November, during a visit by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Washington, Syria officially joined the US-led coalition against IS.

Sharaa is an Islamist ruler and a former jihadist whose group fought IS at the height of his country's civil war.