ISIS resurgence alarms US Coalition Forces: new tactics and recruitment strategies revealed
Shafaq News/ The Islamic State(ISIS) is resurging and posing an escalating threat to US coalition forces inIraq and Syria. ISIS is strengthening its presence in the North Arabian Desert,also known as the Jordanian steppe, where it is training recruits as suicide bomberstargeting allied troops, according to a Wall Street Journal report quoted bythe Jerusalem Post.
US soldiers in Syria are strugglingto contain this resurgence in areas previously cleared of ISIS, with the groupreportedly working to revive its Islamist Caliphate. General Rohilat Afrin,co-commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told the Wall StreetJournal, "This year has been the worst year since we defeated IslamicState. No matter how much you knock them down, they’ll try to get upagain."
In the first half of 2024 alone,ISIS claimed responsibility for 153 attacks in Syria and Iraq, and has beenincreasing its manpower by recruiting and training children. The group's newtactics involve small, guerrilla-style cells using rifles and booby traps, asopposed to its previous large-scale assaults.
The report indicated that the US-SDFcoalition has captured 233 ISIS fighters in 28 operations this year. The USmaintains 900 personnel in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq, and has conductedairstrikes and surveillance to support SDF forces. In one successful operation,SDF forces, with US aerial support, detained dozens of ISIS suspects withoutfiring a shot by using model compounds to plan the raid.
Concerns about ISIS’s resurgencehave intensified amid discussions of a possible US withdrawal from the region.The semi-official Iranian Tasnim News reported that US forces might withdrawfrom Iraq, except the Kurdistan region, by September 2025, with a completewithdrawal by September 2026. Brig. Gen. Ali al-Hassan, a spokesman fornortheast Syria’s US-allied internal security force, warned, “We’ll see chaoslike we’ve never seen before. Any withdrawal will cause the immediateactivation of sleeper cells.”
Based on the report, ISIS is alsotargeting displaced people in Syrian and Iraqi camps for recruitment, includingchildren of ISIS fighters. In the al-Hol camp, children are exposed to ISISpropaganda and are trained as militants when they reach fighting age.
As ISIS continues to evolve andexpand, US forces are under pressure to remain vigilant. “Attention has shiftedelsewhere,” a US Special Forces officer stated, “But now is not the time totake our eyes off of northeast Syria.”
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