ISIS Threatens Syria’s New Leader, Calls for Global Attacks

The Islamic State has released its first audio message in months, harshly criticizing Syria's interim president and calling him a Western puppet. The terrorist group is urging followers worldwide to launch new attacks on Jewish and Western targets.

The Islamic State terrorist organization has launched a verbal assault against Syria’s new interim leader, branding him a Western-controlled “puppet without a soul” and predicting he will meet the same downfall as former dictator Bashar Assad.

The extremist group’s spokesman, identifying himself as Abu Musab al-Furati, delivered the harsh criticism in an audio recording distributed Saturday evening. During the message, he encouraged ISIS supporters across the globe to launch strikes against Jewish and Western locations, echoing previous calls for violence.

Al-Furati conveyed messages from the organization’s current leader, Abu Hafs al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, who assumed control of the group three years ago, to ISIS operatives worldwide.

This marks the terrorist organization’s first public statement in several months, emerging after ISIS was held responsible for multiple deadly incidents across Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, and other regions that killed and injured dozens of people.

Last December, the group orchestrated a deadly assault in Syria’s central region that claimed three American lives, prompting extensive U.S. military strikes against suspected ISIS strongholds throughout the nation.

Although ISIS suffered major defeats in Iraq during 2017 and Syria two years afterward, dormant terrorist cells continue executing fatal attacks in both nations where they previously established their so-called caliphate.

A United Nations report released this month revealed that Syria’s current president, along with the interior and foreign ministers, were targeted in five unsuccessful assassination plots during the previous year.

In December 2024, rebel forces under current interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham organization advanced into Damascus and toppled Assad’s government, significantly weakening Iran’s regional power in the conflict-ravaged nation. Assad represented the minority Alawite community in Syria’s Sunni Muslim-majority population.

Following these events, al-Sharaa, who previously commanded al-Qaida’s Syrian branch, has strengthened ties with Western nations and made history as the first Syrian leader to travel to Washington since the country gained independence in 1946.

Al-Furati declared that Iran and Assad’s administration had been “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-Furati stated. He promised renewed violence in the region, declaring that “Syria has entered a new era of defense and the convoys of jihad will eventually march in Syria.”

The recording, timed to coincide with the start of Ramadan, made no reference to the recent transfer of 5,704 suspected ISIS prisoners from northeastern Syrian detention facilities to Iraq over recent weeks. Al-Furati only mentioned that authorities fear these detainees, with American, Shiite, and Kurdish forces working to prevent any escapes.

The spokesman also avoided discussing al-Hol refugee camp, which previously sheltered over 24,000 individuals, primarily women and children connected to ISIS. The facility now sits nearly vacant after government troops seized control from the U.S.-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces last month.

Al-Furati admitted that ISIS has lost personnel over the past two years due to strikes by the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition. Syria’s government officially became part of this coalition in November.