Growing Back Limbs

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The terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or ISIS) no longer makes headlines like the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East do. Ten years ago, however, it was a different story.

Then, amid the chaos that reigned after the US invaded Iraq and Syria plunged into civil war, ISIS seized Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, and began establishing a new caliphate on a wide swath of land in both countries. The group became the primary threat to world order at the time.

As PBS’ Frontline showed, before falling to a coalition of local and foreign forces in 2019, ISIS launched a reign of terror, committing genocide against the Yazidi minority, destroying non-Islamic religious sites, beheading journalists, humanitarian workers and others, and conducting terror attacks in Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Turkey, and elsewhere.

Now, however, ISIS appears to be reconstituting. Citing US military sources, the Associated Press reported that ISIS is on track to double the number of attacks it has staged in Iraq and Syria in 2024 compared with 2023. Its terrorists already conducted 153 attacks through June this year. Last year, they staged 121 attacks. And since 2019, the group has killed more than 4,000 people.

This shift comes amid many changes in the past 10 years. As memories of ISIS’ rule have receded into the past, local leaders have changed their views on confronting the group.

In Syria, for example, Kurdish rebels fighting the Syrian central government have released around 1,500 aged or sick ISIS fighters who have been in detention since 2019, wrote Middle East Eye. The Kurds are detaining a total of 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 2,000 whose home countries have refused to take them back.

Iraqi leaders have also wanted American and other foreign troops to leave the country, reported Rudaw, a Kurdish news outlet. Their decision partly stems from frustration with American strikes against pro-Iranian military groups and interests in Iraq. ISIS groups, incidentally, have attacked US installations in Iraq and Syria as payback for American support for Israel’s war against the Iranian-supported Palestinian terror group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera added.

These developments potentially have emboldened ISIS to expand its reach beyond Iraq and Syria, too. ISIS fighters, who are radical Sunni Muslims, recently attacked a Shiite Muslim mosque in Oman. An ISIS affiliate has been active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. The group is also active in Nigeria, Niger, Mali, and other African countries. In Mozambique, an ISIS-linked force has caused violence that has claimed 6,000 lives and displaced more than one million people, added World Politics Review.

It’s a deadly and oppressive but remarkably resilient franchise, wrote the Economist: “The history of global jihadism is one of reinvention under pressure from the West.”