2024-04-06T14:48:59+00:00
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/ A report by the Voice of America website, on Saturday, reported an increase in ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria over the past two months, indicating that the organization is launching new and powerful attacks against forces loyal to the Syrian regime headed by Bashar al-Assad.
US Central Command data showed that the number of ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq is about 2,500 people, double the estimates issued at the end of last January.
The report also indicated, according to what was published by the “Al-Hurra” website, that there are new studies that highlight these concerns, as the “Counter Extremism Project” Center explained in its report issued earlier this week, that ISIS “confirmedly carried out at least 69 attacks in central Syria last month.
These attacks caused the deaths of at least 84 Syrian regime soldiers and 44 civilians, which is more than double the total number of confirmed ISIS operations during 2024.
The Countering Extremism Project, which defines itself as a non-profit, non-partisan international policy organization created to combat the growing threat of extremist ideology, noted that March “was the most violent month in the ISIS insurgency in the Badia (central Syria) since late 2017, when the organization lost control of areas seized.
The report continued: “ISIS cells successfully and continuously targeted regime positions, setting up ambushes, capturing soldiers, and repeatedly executing them.”
In a report issued this week by the Rojava Information Center, affiliated with the Kurds, ISIS continued its attacks at a significant pace in parts of Syria controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by the United States.
The center counted 27 ISIS attacks in March, 26 in February, and 16 attacks last January.
These fears are not new, as an official with the political wing of the Syrian Democratic Forces told the Voice of America website last January that the activities of the terrorist organization “have increased significantly” whether in areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces or the Assad regime.
Although the organization’s growth can be considered somewhat “modest,” Bill Roggio, a fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Voice of America that ISIS “always maintains its capabilities, even after losing control of Mosul, Raqqa, and other locations.” “.
He continued: “They were never defeated… because we did not do enough to actually defeat them. In other places like Syria, it will be very difficult to work because who will you work with? Who will you cooperate with to do this?”
In light of the Russian presence in Syria, some former officials warned that any “good faith” dealings between the United States and Russia regarding ISIS “have long disappeared,” according to the American website.
According to the Countering Extremism Project, “ISIS is not ready to control major cities…and it is likely that it will also be unable to seize less strategic targets, but the March attacks appear to show a pattern in which ISIS cells filled a large portion of the void in regime areas.”
The US Ambassador to Baghdad, Alina Romanowski, confirmed that “ISIS still poses a threat in Iraq.”
Romanovsky said, according to what was reported by Reuters last month, “The attack carried out by ISIS in Russia reminds us of the necessity of defeating the organization everywhere.”
On March 22, in the deadliest attack in Russia in 20 years, gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons in a concert hall near Moscow, killing at least 144 in an attack for which ISIS Khorasan claimed responsibility.