Syrian government forces have taken control of a base in the east of the country that was run for years by U.S. troops as part of the war against the Islamic State group, the defence ministry said in a statement Thursday.

It comes on the heels of news that the country’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, as well as a couple of Syrian ministers, were the targets of five foiled assassination attempts last year, according to a report released by the United Nations on Wednesday.

The al-Tanf base sits on a strategic location, close to the borders with Jordan and Iraq. In a terse statement, the Syrian Defence Ministry said the handover of the base took place in co-ordination with the U.S. military and Syrian forces are now “securing the base and its perimeters.”

Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the handover to Reuters.

The Syrian Defence Ministry also said that Syrian troops are now in place in the desert area around the al-Tanf garrison, with border guards to deploy in the coming days.

The deployment of Syrian troops at al-Tanf and in the surrounding areas comes after last month’s deal between the government and the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, to merge into the military.

Al-Tanf garrison was repeatedly attacked over the past years with drones by Iran-backed groups, but such attacks have dropped sharply following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria in December 2024, when insurgent groups marched into his seat of power in Damascus. Assad fled to Russia.

Al-Tanf base played a major role in the fight against the Islamic State group that declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later.

Over the past weeks, the U.S. military began transferring thousands of ISIS prisoners from prisons run by the SDF in northeastern Syria to Iraq, where they will be prosecuted.

Plots detailed by UN

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has been expanding his control of the country, and last month, government forces captured wide parts of northeast Syria after deadly clashes with the SDF.

A ceasefire was later reached between government and the SDF.

Al-Sharaa, as well as Syria’s interior and foreign ministers were the targets of five foiled assassination attempts last year, according to a report released by the United Nations on Wednesday.

The report said al-Sharaa was targeted in northern Aleppo, the country’s most populous province, and southern Daraa by a group called Saraya Ansar al-Sunnah, which was assessed to be a front for the Islamic State group.

The report, issued by Secretary General António Guterres and prepared by the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, gave no dates or details of the attempts against al-Sharaa or Syrian Interior Minister Anas Hasan Khattab and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani.

ISIS still a significant presence

The assassination attempts are more evidence that ISIS remains intent on undermining the new Syrian government and “actively exploiting security vacuums and uncertainty” in Syria, the report said.

According to the UN counterterrorism experts, the Islamic State group maintains an estimated 3,000 fighters across Iraq and Syria, the majority of them based in Syria. The UN counterterrorism experts said the militant group still operates across the country, primarily attacking security forces, particularly in the north and northeast.

In November, Sharaa’s government joined the international coalition formed to counter the Islamic State group, which once controlled a large part of Syria.

Al-Sharaa was previously the leader of Hayar Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group that was once affiliated with al-Qaeda, although it later cut ties.