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A10 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 13 OctOber 2018
IS reverting to insurgency tactics after losing caliphate

By BASSEM MROUE lapse of the supposed ca- rity forces have begun a It’s not clear how many mil- raising funds and rebuild-
Associated Press liphate came in late July, broad operation in the itants are still fighting with ing command-and-control
BEIRUT (AP) — After being when dozens of masked IS western province of Anbar IS. A United Nations report over its remnant forces,”
nearly defeated on the fighters stormed the south- that borders Syria to take released in August said IS said a recent report by the
battlefields of its would-be ern city of Sweida and out IS sleeper cells. has up to 30,000 members Institute for the Study of
caliphate, the Islamic State War, using an alternative
group has reverted to what acronym for IS. “ISIS could
it was before its spectacu- regain sufficient strength
lar conquests in 2014, ana- to mount a renewed in-
lysts say — a shadowy insur- surgency that once again
gent network that targets threatens to overmatch lo-
civilian populations with cal security forces in both
guerrilla-style attacks and Iraq and Syria.”
exploits state weaknesses In August, following months
to incite sectarian strife. of conflicting reports on
In Iraq and Syria, hardly whether he was alive, IS
a week goes by without released a new audio mes-
the group staging an at- sage, purportedly of its
tack on a town or village, shadowy leader Abu Bakr
keeping its opponents on al-Baghdadi, the first such
edge even as it fights U.S.- recording to emerge in al-
backed forces advancing most a year. The speaker
on the last remaining slice urged followers to “perse-
of territory under its control vere” and continue fight-
near the countries’ shared ing the group’s enemies.
border. He also urged supporters in
Hisham al-Hashimi, an IS the West to carry out more
expert who advises the attacks, adding that each
Iraqi government, said the “operation in your land
group now operates like it In this undated file image posted on Monday, June 30, 2014, by the Raqqa Media Center of the equals a thousand” in the
Islamic State group, fighters from the Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, north Syria.
did in 2010, before its rise in Associated Press Middle East.
Iraq, which culminated four The group appears overly
years later with the militants nearby villages inhabited Analysts warn that this distributed roughly equally eager to claim responsibility
seizing one of Iraq’s big- by members of Syria’s Dru- could be the beginning of between Syria and Iraq, for attacks in the West and
gest cities, Mosul, and also ze minority, gunning down a new resurgence of the and said its global network regularly claims responsi-
claiming the city of Raqqa more than 200 people and group similar to the one increasingly poses a threat. bility through its Aamaq
in Syria and declaring an kidnapping about 30, most- that preceded their rise in The U.N. report said that news agency for attacks in
Islamic caliphate across ly women and children. 2010, after many thought despite the defeat of IS in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and
large areas of both coun- The ambush shook the the group’s predecessor, Iraq and most of Syria, it is Egypt and countries as far
tries. community, which had the Islamic State in Iraq, likely that a reduced “co- as Nigeria and France.
Al-Hashimi said the world’s stayed on the sidelines of had been defeated during vert version” of the militant In August, shortly after news
most dangerous insurgent Syria’s seven-year civil war the U.S. surge there in 2007. group’s “core” will survive broke out of a man killing
group is trying to prove that and took many by surprise, Hassan Hassan, senior re- in both countries, with sig- two people in France, IS
despite losing its territorial raising fears that as the search fellow at George nificant affiliated support- claimed responsibility for
hold, “it still has long arms militants are on the retreat, Washington University’s Pro- ers in Afghanistan, Libya, the attack. It later became
to strike.” they will try to regroup in gram on Extremism, wrote Southeast Asia and West clear that the man was
While it fends off attacks remote pockets of territory in a recent article that IS Africa. mentally disturbed and
on its remaining pockets like this once quiet corner has been able to undergo “Make no mistake about had family disputes.
in Syria, a recent surge in of the country. an orderly transition from it, as (IS) has collapsed in- Last month, IS claimed re-
false claims of responsibil- Last month, IS fighters caliphate to insurgency ward, in their own way, sponsibility an attack in
ity for attacks also signals stormed the northern Iraqi without fracturing. they have reinforced a Iran’s Ahvaz region, but ini-
that the group is struggling village of Gharib, killing Last month, U.S.-backed center as they’ve been tially made factually incor-
to stay relevant after losing three villagers and wound- Syrian fighters of the Syrian forced into what is now less rect claims about it. Later,
its proto-state and its domi- ing nine after residents re- Democratic Forces began than 2 percent of their origi- IS released footage of sev-
nance on the international fused to collaborate with a final push to retake Ha- nal territory,” U.S. Defense eral men that Iran ultimate-
news agenda. The main them and give them sup- jin, the last pocket held by Secretary Jim Mattis said in ly identified as attackers,
figures behind the group’s plies such as food and am- IS on the eastern banks of Paris earlier this month. though the men in the foot-
once sleek propaganda munition. Last week, IS at- the Euphrates River near Many are concerned that age are not known to have
machine have mostly been tacked the village of Saa- the Iraq border. They have while the United States, pledged allegiance to the
killed. Raqqa fell a year diyeh, south of the northern had to advance slowly as working with local allies, extremist group.q
ago this month, and the Iraqi city of Mosul, killing the extremists rely on mines, was able to destroy the
group has lost all but 2 per- three and abducting one. snipers fire and suicide at- physical caliphate relative-
cent of the territory it held The group regularly stages tacks in defending their po- ly quickly, it did not fix gov-
in Iraq and Syria. attacks in villages in the sitions. erning problems that origi-
There are concerns, how- provinces of Diyala, Sala- Clashes this week in the Syr- nally created the opportu-
ever, that while IS may huddin and Kirkuk and ian village of Sousah left nity for IS to emerge, includ-
never be able to recreate elsewhere, targeting local more than two dozen fight- ing frustrations among the
the kind of territorial hold officials or police because ers on both sides dead as Sunni populations of both
it once had, it is trying to they work for the state. IS fighters took advantage countries.
latch on to new territory. Iraqi military spokesman of a sandstorm and bad “ISIS is waging an effective
One of the group’s dead- Big. Gen. Yahya Rasoul visibility to attack SDF posi- campaign to re-establish
liest attacks since the col- said this week that secu- tions. durable support zones while