Islamic State Thrives and Lives On Globally

Twenty-one years after its founding in 2004 and eleven years since declaring a caliphate in 2014, the Islamic State’s territorial presence in Iraq and Syria has diminished significantly. At its height, the organisation fielded up to 80,000 militants, including more than 42,000 foreign terrorist fighters from over 120 countries. In contrast, by mid-2025, estimates suggest only 1,500 to 3,000 fighters remain active in Syria and Iraq.  

Despite the Islamic State having shrunk in the Middle East, its global presence has expanded significantly, and by the end of 2024, the Islamic State remained the deadliest terrorist organisation in the world. Since the loss of its self-proclaimed Caliphate in Syria and Iraq in 2019, and some 60,000 combatants, the organisation has undergone radical structural and operational changes. In 2025, the Islamic State relies primarily on a dynamic network of regional affiliates who operate with a greater autonomy of action than ever before."

The Islamic State’s digital operations in 2025 remain a key pillar of its strategy to maintain global influence, project power, and advance its ideological and operational goals. The organisation  effectively exploits social media platforms and encrypted messaging tools to disseminate propaganda, radicalise, and recruit supporters, particularly targeting younger demographics who are both most active online and vulnerable to radicalisation. 

International Centre for Counter-Terrorism

AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed

 

"With the events of last weekend — an Islamic State (IS) attack in Palmyra, Syria that killed three Americans and an IS-inspired (or directed, pending further investigation) terror attack in Sydney, Australia targeting a Hanukkah celebration that killed 15, the Islamic State is once again back in the headlines."

"One of the most frequently asked questions from journalists and the media was, does this suggest the beginning of a new wave of IS attacks across the globe? In truth, nobody knows."

"But the attacks were less about a resurgence of IS, and more a reflection of a longstanding reality — the group has not been defeated and will remain a major counterterrorism challenge for the foreseeable future."

The Soufan Center 

One of the three men arrested in Toronto charged with hate-motivated extremism targeting women and members of the Jewish community last week, 26-year-old Waleed Khan faces ISIS-linked terrorism charges. Khan conspired with "persons known and unknown" in Toronto and elsewhere in Ontario to commit murder, according to the RCMP. It appears fairly reasonable to comprehend from this that Islamic State-linked extremists dedicated to jihad make their homes in Canada. 

 

Earlier occurrences in Montreal and Newmarket respecting ISIS-related arrests, make this most recent one in Toronto, a third in what appears to be a growing series where since 2023, 23 such arrests have taken place in Canada. Mere days ago an ISIS attack in Syria killed three U.S. soldiers, while an ISIS-inspired attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney saw 15 people killed and 40 wounded. A reminder to the world that the Islamic State Caliphate has morphed from a since-routed territory within Syria and Iraq to the far more difficult-to-expunge minds of aspiring Islamist jihadists where the Internet plays a central role in radicalizing young Muslims.

 

Australian PM: Bondi Beach Atrocity inspired by ISIS

 

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has ventured an estimate of at minimum 200 individuals with connections to Canada travelled overseas to serve as fighters, recruiters, fundraisers and propagandists in league with Islamic State in its heyday. The agency warned early in 2025 of its "increasing...concern" for the risk of ISIS-inspired attacks at  home. A Canadian has been identified as one of the group's most notorious online propagandists. The kind of propaganda appealing to restless young man prone and prey to self-radicalization as "lone-wolf" terrorists eager to make their mark striking anywhere.

 

The psychologically corrosive allure of violent action in a cause believed to be divine, with the faithful of Islam responding to one of the major faith edicts of jihad, promises a role for those willing and able to weaponize the grievances of victimhood and nowhere at present is that target of lethal vengeance more alive than in Israel's military response in Gaza to the Palestinian terrorist attack of 7 October 2023; a flashpoint of rage and retribution. 

 

Waleed Khan, Osman Azizov and Fahad Sadaat are facing a combined total of 79 charges according to police, including attempted kidnapping with a firearm and sexual assault with a weapon, police say. Khan is also accused of funding ISIS and aiding terrorist activity, the RCMP said. (Toronto Police Service/YouTube)

 

As the most recent arrests to take place in Canada demonstrate, terrorism's allure is increasingly for the young to incite violence within their own areas of domicile where governments tend to be lenient in their response to the destabilizing, socially divisive solitary and group actions of the disaffected demographic that reacts compulsively to the prods of incitement that claim Israel has mounted a genocide against the people of 'Palestine'. Clamouring for Israel's destruction from afar has its satisfying long-range echoes, but Jew-hate can be practised anywhere and in Canada, the ongoing 'pro-Palestinian', anti-Israel marches target the Jewish contingent in the country for a 'Final Solution'. 

 

Deviations from a crowd mentality are those lone wolves who strike out to commit violent acts of terror; acts as wide-ranging as fire-bombing synagogues, firing at Jewish parochial schools, vandalizing Jewish community centers and Jewish businesses, and now the most recently revealed pursuits, hunting down Jewish women with the intention of kidnapping and sexual assaults. Petty and disturbing incidents of ripping mezuzahs (small metal lozenges containing sacred scrolls) commonly placed on Jewish door posts, are disconcertingly frightening for the elderly residents in targeted homes.

 

And yet, through all these warning signs, along with the rising decibel of fear and loathing, Canadian authorities at all levels cling to inaction. Failure to make use of existing laws against public disorder, threats, violence and instigation of acts of violence have served to embolden those who continue to slanderously stigmatize others, threaten their peace of mind and deviate when it suits them from targeting Canadian Jews, to harass shoppers at Christmas markets, or enter Jewish-owned businesses to confront those shopping there. 

 

The Government of Canada recently announced additions to its terrorist list. A year ago it added Samidoun, yet it still permits the terrorist entity to operate its foreign affiliates out of Vancouver. 

 

The Government of Canada is taking action to counter terrorism and violent extremism, in particular the radicalization of young people online, by adding four new organizations to the Criminal Code list of terrorist entities. These measures help protect Canadians and communities from intimidation, hate, and acts of violent extremism and terrorism.

Today, the Honourable Gary Anandasangaree, Minister of Public Safety, announced the addition of the following groups: 764, Maniac Murder Cult, Terrorgram Collective, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, also known as Daesh) affiliate Islamic State-Mozambique.

Under Canada's Criminal Code, these organizations are now legally defined as "terrorist groups". This gives Canadian law enforcement and security agencies stronger tools to prevent and disrupt terrorist activity. Key implications include:

• All property owned by these groups in Canada must be frozen and reported to CSIS or the RCMP.
• It is a criminal offence for anyone in Canada and Canadians abroad to knowingly deal with property belonging to a listed terrorist group.
• Providing property or financial services that benefit these groups is also prohibited.
• Immigration and border officials can use this listing to inform decisions on admissibility under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

764, Maniac Murder Cult and Terrorgram Collective are transnational ideologically motivated violent extremist (IMVE) networks. They use social media and online gaming platforms to recruit and radicalize individuals, spread propaganda and violent extremist narratives, and incite violence both online and offline. Canada is the first country to list 764 as a terrorist entity, taking a leadership position in combatting the significant threat of IMVE and fighting against emerging terrorist trends. Listing these groups helps Canada protect the safety and security of Canadians, including children and vulnerable populations, against terrorism and violent extremism.

Islamic State-Mozambique (IS-M) is an official ISIS branch. It is an armed insurgent group based in Mozambique seeking to replace the governing authority with Sharia-based governance by seizing territory, infiltrating civilian populations and security forces, and committing violent acts of terrorism.

Listing these entities will help Canadian security, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies in combatting their crimes and terrorist activities, and make our communities safer.

Government of Canada, December 10, 2025

 

Washington Institute for Near-East Policy

 

 

"All of the women here are radical."

"But the bigger problem is that the mothers are educating their kids according to the Islamic State ideology."

Hokmiya Ibrahim, administrator, Roj camp, Syria 

 

"Repatriation is the priority."

"We are aiming to return people to their countries, not just in al-Hol, but for all the camps inside northeast Syria. Everyone should go back home."

"This camp is a ticking time bomb. We’ve received intelligence from our allies in the international coalition, led by the United States, and from the Iraqi government, that ISIS [the Islamic State] is planning something. But we don’t know whether it will be an external attack or an uprising from within."

"We’re trying to address this together with the National Security Agency and the [U.N. Refugee Agency]."

"[But on the part of the new government], no steps have been taken to relocate these populations."

"Humanitarian cases in al-Hawl need urgent referral to Damascus or elsewhere and, for the past month and a half, we’ve seen no positive moves." 

Jihan Hanan, co-head, al-Hol camp, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces

 

"Many international organizations have programs for al-Hol, but when it comes to actually moving and supporting families, there is no one there in practice."

"Given the scale of needs and funding constraints, no returnee receives a full package of support immediately upon return. Resources simply do not allow for that."

Mounzer al-Salal, director, Syrian NGO Stabilization Support Unit (SSU) 

Families prepare to return to their hometowns from northeast Syria’s al-Hol camp, 27 April 2025. Reuters

 

"A massive fence confines 39,000 people, 11,000 of whom are foreign nationals. Of these, 95% are women and children — mostly relatives of Islamic State fighters — along with a number of other civilians displaced by war. The camp is divided into six sections. Sections 1 through 5 house about 33,000 Syrians and Iraqis. Section 6, which the camp’s director described as “the most dangerous,” holds the families of foreign fighters from over 42 countries."

"There are 24,000 minors in al-Hawl. Many were born behind barbed wire and have never seen the world beyond the camp. Seven thousand of these children are under 12 years old. As we drive in, children hurl stones at the armored vehicles driven by our escorts from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia coalition that has battled the Islamic State for years. Others hide. One boy raises his right index finger — a gesture often associated with the Islamic State."

"Since 2019, over 150 killings have been documented inside al-Hawl; an average of more than two murders per month. A few weeks ago, authorities discovered the mutilated remains of a woman in Section 6, partly mummified and discarded in a ditch between tents belonging to extremists."

New Lines Magazine 

Mostly women and children live in the al-Hol camp    BBC

 

Most of the detainees in the Al Hol Camp located in northeastern Syria where a fence with barbed wire surrounds the immense compound, are family members -- the wives, sisters and children -- of the Islamic State fighters imprisoned nearby. Prisons close by the women's prison house over 8,000 of the ISIS fighters. Kurdish-led Syrian forces supported by the United States fought to reclaim land in Syria that ISIS had ruled for years as well as in Iraq, when it established its 'Islamic Caliphate', planning to conquer ever greater tracts of land until it was finally brought to heel.

 

The Kurdish-led forces that had protected the minority groups such as Yazidis, Christians and their own from the  brutal Islamists detained thousands of ISIS fighters and tens of thousands of their relatives, many women who had entered Syria from abroad responding to an appeal from ISIS for 'brides' for their terrorist fighting men. Ever since that wind-down of ISIS and the capture and imprisonment of their cohorts, the Kurds have been left to the task of guarding them. Despite years-long appeals to the international community by the Kurds to repatriate their citizens, few have complied.

 

The United States, allied with the Kurds, is now preparing to completely withdraw their presence and expects the new government of Syria to take responsibility for the thousands of residents in the detention camps, part of its plans to have the  Syrian Democratic Forces led by  the Kurds merge with the reconstituted military of the Syrian government under one-time ISIS affiliate, President Ahmed Al Sharaa, once known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani, in his earlier role as a bona fide jihadist. 

 

Although the Trump Administration has given the new Syrian administration a clean bill of health, that hasn't stopped the Al Sharaa military from aiding and abetting parts of its Sunni alliance jihadist militias in deadly reprisal attacks against the Syrian Alawites as well as Syrian Druze and Christians. Understandably, given the Kurdish experience with Sunni Jihadist militias and its battles over the years to free the geography from the hold of the Islamic State, the Kurds have little trust in the new government and its stated commitment to fight ISIS. 

 

The al-Hol camp holds families of alleged Islamic State fighters [Getty]

 

 Kurds view the likelihood that the former al-Qaeda-linked new government may turn the ISIS prisoners free, despite their public stance of battling ISIS. By no means is the Islamic State dead and gone as a violent ideological threat to global stability and security. It continues to target northeast Syria's Kurdish-led forces, expanding reach and frequency and lethality, reflecting the assessments by the UN and U.S. Two American soldiers were killed in one such attack in mid-December.

 

According to camp officials, ISIS operatives remain inside the camps, their focus that of radicalizing the children. Over 27,000 family members of ISIS fighters are held in Al Hol and nearby Roj camps. And while none of the women have been charged with  any crimes, the officials are under no illusion that many of these women are dangerous as ongoing proponents of the ISIS agenda, intent on teaching their children to become future acting members of the terrorist group. 

 

The most extreme of the detainees are those from countries outside the Middle East; Tajikistan, France and Russia; among them, about 6,000 women and children living separately in the camp, off limits to visitors. Violence and ill-health are the lot of the residents of the camp, where weapons are smuggled in and women and older adolescent boys attempt frequent escapes. Among the hundreds of vehicles entering daily with supplies, some carry human contraband out of the camp. 

 

"Every day people are fleeing, and it seems it is an organized operation", observed Al Hol administrator Jihan Hanan. 

  

All the residents at the camp are under indefinite detention, even though many have no links to the Islamic State and fled to the camp to escape the punishing U.S.-led bombing campaign. Photograph by Ivor Prickett

Canada's Wannabe Jihadi-Wives

"With Canadians lining up in food banks in record numbers and struggling with housing costs, the Liberal government must answer for why they spend $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals."

"The fact that these items were purchased for those detained as alleged terrorists is appalling in itself."

"[The opposition is] calling for the committee to be immediately recalled to launch a full inquiry into this matter."

Conservative Party letter to federal government 

 

"Such spending raises serious questions about government priorities, public trust, and the integrity of our system."

"[The return of foreign fighters who left to join terrorist groups should prioritize public safety], not reward those who betrayed their country and broke the law."

"[We are] deeply troubled [by the] extravagant homecoming [the women received]."

"Victims’ families have had to pay their own way to attend legal proceedings related to the terror suspects accused of killing their loved ones."

"The stark contrast between how our government treats perpetrators and how it treats their victims should alarm every Canadian and offend every taxpayer."

Sheryl Saperia, CEO, Secure Canada 

 

"[ISIS] still poses a significant threat via its network of provinces, affiliates, related loose online networks, and due to its ability to inspire Canada-based threat actors to commit serious acts of violence."

Canadian Security Intelligence Service 

 

"The Liberal government needs to be held accountable for the way it throws away our money and wastes hard earned tax dollars, giving rewards and luxuries to people who betrayed our country."

"We want to make sure that we’re getting to the bottom of it so this money can’t be wasted in the future."

"[The women should be asked to repay the costs of their repatriation]. They made the decision to go and join and marry into the worst terrorist network in the world, and they should pay the full costs of getting back to Canada."

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre  

The Al-Hawl Camp, where most of the families capture during the fight against ISIS are detained.

 

When the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was in its expanding Caliphate heyday, a number of Canadian women travelled to the Middle East to reach Iraq and Syria where their steadily expanding empire was located, answering the call to jihad, to link up with the  terrorists as wives to produce children they called the 'lion cubs' of ISIL jihad, and to take part in the propaganda aimed at Western audiences in their bid to inspire more Muslims abroad in the diaspora to respond to the call of jihad.

 

Once the Islamic State lost their momentum of terror-inspired power, when the Kurdish Peshmerga aligned with U.S. and Western military forces began to gain the upper hand, wrenching territory back from their grasp, and eventually defeating the Islamic State whose members were either taken prisoner or escaped elsewhere to attempt to restore their caliphate mission elsewhere, recruit among Muslims in Africa and Afghanistan, rearm and inspire terror once again, Kurdish forces undertook a temporary imprisonment of foreign Islamic State fighters, creating a separate prison for their women and children.

 

The U.S. state department reported in 2023 that 14 countries including Canada repatriated 3,500 citizens, and overall, about 7,000 family members of foreign fighters representing 30 countries were brought back to their countries of origin. More than half of those held in the Kurdish-guarded prison camps were under age 12; the U.S. bureau of counterterrorism warning that if they remained they would be vulnerable to ISIS recruitment, likely fuelling a resurgence in the Middle East. An argument that spurred Western nations to reluctantly repatriate their wayward citizens.

 

Thanks to the federal Access to Information law, an investigative journalist, Stewart Bell with Global News was able to reveal that Canada's Liberal government used over $170,000 of taxpayer funding to retrieve a handful of Canadian women and their children who had gone overseas to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Costs for hotel bills in Montreal were included for the returnees and their government escorts. When the details were revealed, Parliament's Conservative opposition called for an expenditures investigation.

 

Expense reports released under Access to Information Act on costs of repatriating Canadian ISIS women and their kids. Global News

 

The initial round of repatriations completed in October of 2022, came with a cost of $10,863 when Canadians Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay were returned. Polman faces charges of terrorism, while Chouay pleaded guilty a month ago to a charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group. In April of 2023 the second operation incurred $132,746 in expenses that included government staff and the ISIS returnees. $20,331 went for 23 hotel rooms at the Marriott Hotel at the Montreal Airport. That included room-service invoices and a $3,000 catering tab.

 

Four returning Canadian women, three of whom on arrival were arrested and their ten children comprised the returnees. Emontonian Aimeee Lucia Vasconez, married to two different ISIS fighters was in that group while Ammara Amjad also in the group was arrested and faces a charge of terrorism. One room cost $1,100 which included the original room cost of $638 and $95-worth of wine, a $105 room-service meal and $87-worth of items from the hotel gift store that included chocolate, chips and over-the-counter drugs. 

 

A tip of $7 on  a $8 coffee came from that same room while $15-worth of children's ice cream was from another room, and a third had ordered drinks of white, red and sparkling wine at $25 each. Two $24 smoked meat sandwiches came from yet another room. Early July 2023 saw the third repatriation operation proceed, which cost over $27,500 when a government of Canada employee -- likely with Global Affairs -- expense-purchased snacks including goldfish and granola bars, and Timbits. In that operation, Montreal hotel rooms cost about $2,300. 

 

Two women from Edmonton, Dina Kalouti and Helena Carson were in that group; both sentenced to six-month peace bonds, required to continue counselling with the Organization for the Prevention of Violence. Needless to say, none of these operations began in Montreal; there was a journey from the Al-Hol camp in Syria to reach Montreal; the cost of the air flights were not included in the total expenditure figures released by Global Affairs through the Access to Information legislation. Nor the cost associated for government employees to fly out to Syria to escort these women and their children back to Canada.

 

Kimberly Polman is greeted by family members after being released from custody at provincial court in Chilliwack, B.C., on October 27, 2022. Polman was repatriated to Canada from a detention camp in Syria after marrying an ISIS member. Photo by Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press

  

Entering Canada on a Student Visa -- Welcome!!!!

"Khan's intention was] slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible". 

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland

 

"I can confirm that Muhammed Khan is a Pakistani national."

"We take any security breach in any entry into Canada very seriously."

"Let's not be naive. A determined individual can gain access to this country."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller 

The New York skyline is pictured from a park in Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. June 23, 2024. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian/

 

Yes, of course, he's right; any determined person can gain access into Canada. It is widely known internationally that Canada, a wealthy democratic nation, is so obsessed with its welcoming immigration history, hugely valuing the diversity and wealth of cultures, languages, heritage backgrounds, and diversity of religious faiths in its vaunted multiculturalism that under the current Liberal government, the country is hungrily set to absorb a half-million new immigrants a year.

Canada is also, infamously, not too concerned with the quality of immigrants that flood the country; in the past, ingloriously, the intake of Nazi war criminals was known yet governments in succession were disinterested in facing the situation or prepared to ameliorate it. Nothing has since been learned; Iranians associated with the current Islamic Republic, notoriously known to cultivate terrorist groups are able to enter Canada at will, threatening the well-being of Iranian-Canadians who fear and loathe the theocratic Iran.

Several weeks ago a father-and-son duo was arrested by the RCMP who had identified them as members of Islamic State in preparation to launch a murderous assault within Canada for the purpose of killing innocent Westerners in the name of Islamist terrorism. More recently it was a 20-year-old resident of Canada, a Pakistani national, residing in Canada on an easily-obtainable student visa. 

 

International students from India at the site for an indefinite protest in Brampton, Ontario, Canada (Naujawan Support Network)

 

Muhammed Khan had applied for a student visa and was duly issued that visa in May of 2023. A month later, he entered Canada, ostensibly as a student prepared to attend post-secondary institution, not as a terrorist in waiting to plot an act of atrocious criminality. But this is what his expedited intrusion enabled him to do. Not to worry, stated the Immigration minister; Canadian security and police forces are tasked to apprehend such individuals.

Although, presumably, screening such individuals before their entry, prior to issuing visas, would be far more efficient and intelligent, before enabling those with a harm agenda to plan their terrorist projects which might not always be caught before execution. The Immigration minister was loathe to pursue the issue any further stating elected officials should make no comments that have the potential to "compromise the judicial process".

Snappily critical of the Opposition Conservatives who demand the Liberal government respond to questions regarding someone permitted entry to Canada given terrorist associations readily ascertainable on security scrutiny. "It's highly careless of Pierre Poilievre and his team to be firing their mouths off again", he stated of an opposition whose Parliamentary and government duty it is to scrutinize sitting government actions that lead to possible concerns for the safety and security of Canadians.

 

Mostafa Eldidi (left) and Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi appear virtually in a Newmarket, Ont., courtroom on Aug. 28, 2024. The pair face a total of nine charges including one count each of conspiracy to commit murder for the benefit or at the direction of a terrorist group. (Alexandra Newbould/CBC)

 

That same opposition followed up on their concerns through a letter to the chair of the parliamentary committee on public safety to call for a probe, stating a "pattern of ISIS-affiliated terrorists entering and residing in Canada" makes it imperative that the situation be studied for the purpose of tightening up procedures of entry and authorized visa entries for people with troubling background alliances anxious to infiltrate the country for nefarious purposes.

The recent episodes of apprehension within a two-week period of two unassociated groups representing Islamist terrorism attempting to perpetrate atrocities in North America through entry to Canada merited an investigation since these are incidents that "raise serious questions about the government's ability to prevent potential terrorists from entering the country". 

According to statements from both the RCMP and FBI, Khan was arrested while attempting to enter the United States, with plans to mount a terrorist attack against Jewish residents of New York City, coinciding with the first anniversary of the barbaric, sadistic Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7. As U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, Khan's purpose was "slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible".

Khan, who began posting and issuing online statements revealing his ISIS support back to November, planned to use automatic and semi-automatic weapons at a Brooklyn Jewish centre, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

RCMP gather outside a home in Ormstown, Que. where terror suspect Muhammed Khan was arrested last week.  CBC

Islamic State in a Paroxysm of BloodLust

"The fight with Jews is a religious war, not a social or national battle. It is not centred around lands or borders."

"Barge into their homes and kill them using different methods, including gunfire, bombs, grenades and knives."

"Don't differentiate between a civilian or a soldier, as they both should be targeted."

Islamic State spokesman Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari

"And kill them wherever  you find them" is the title of a 30-minute recording calling on ISIS supporters worldwide to attack Jews in response to the Israel Defense Forces hunting down Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, published by the Islamic State media arm Al-Furqan. Al-Ansari instructs the ISIL terrorist cells to strike Israeli and Jewish targets across the United States and Europe. Emphasizing what good targets synagogues, Jewish gatherings and Israeli diplomatic missions make.

At least 95 people were killed after two bombs exploded at an event honouring prominent Iranian general Qassam Soleimani, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2020. No one has taken responsibility for the attack. Still from video, CBC

Coincidentally Islamic State has taken credit for a deadly attack in Iran that killed close to one hundred Iranians Thursday when two explosions wounded hundreds of people besides those killed, at a memorial for the Iranian Republican Guard Corps al Quds commander, Qassem Soleimani who had been assassinated by the United States in a drone strike in 2020. On its Telegram Channel the Islamic State announced that two of its members detonated explosive belts in a crowd gathering at the cemetery in Kerman the day before.

Unsurprisingly, although Islamic State has taken credit for the bombings the Islamic Republic of Iran accuses Israel and the United States of having perpetrated the bloodshed. Going so far as to assert that the Islamic State group in planning and executing the atrocity, was acting on behalf of Israel, following Israel's orders. The IRGC and Islamic State have much in common; both seek to annihilate Jews and Israel, but the former is Shiite and the latter Sunni, and they detest one another, though not as much as they do Israel.

According to Al-Ansari, the Gaza conflict lays wide open the complicity of a number of Arab nations, including Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, along with some Gulf nations, in what he described as the "Jewish war against Muslims". There is just something about Islamofascism in its embrace of jihad that magnifies the inhumanity of man to man, amplified by their estrangement from reality with their penchant for producing a reality all their very own, a typical pathology of group psychopathy.

According to the Islamic State Amaq News Agency Soleimani had been "involved in dozens of massacres of Muslims in Iraq and Syria". All Islamic State members, needless to say, present in the late and unlamented caliphate that encompassed a third of both Syria and Iraq, before it was liquidated, thanks mostly to the work of the Kurdish military aligned with the United States and its allies. 

"Hamas is ISIS -- this is not a slogan because we found terrorists with ISIS flags. We also found ISIS booklets", said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, alluding to Israeli security forces discovering an ISIS flag on the body of one of the terrorists that died in Kibbutz Sufa in the wake of the Hamas October 7 attack on southwestern Israel that slaughtered 1,200 Israelis and raped, mutilated and butchered Israeli girls and women, while taking 240 Israeli children, elderly and soldiers, along with foreign farm workers as hostages into Gaza.

Israelis evacuated from northern areas near the Lebanese border due to ongoing cross-border tensions, lift Israeli and a Druze flag during a rally near the northern Amiad Kibbutz, demanding to return home on December 26, 2023. Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images

ECOWAS Threat of Niger Invasion

"A military intervention with no end in sight risks triggering a regional war, with catastrophic consequences for the vast Sahel that is already plagued by insecurity, displacement and poverty."

Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst, global risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft 

"What we are witnessing today is both jihadi warring factions, the Islamic State group and [al-Qaeda affiliate Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin] marking their territory because of the security void caused by the coup."

"This definitely should be seen in the context of the ongoing war between the two groups."

Wassim Nasr, journalist, senior research fellow, Soufan Center think tank

Mohamed Toumba, one of the soldiers who ousted Nigerian President Mohamed Bazoum, addresses supporters of Niger's ruling junta in Niamey, Niger, Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023. (Sam Mednick/AP)

 

The standoff between Niger and ECOWAS, the West African regional bloc, and the Niger coup leaders grows more tense day by day. Niger was viewed as one of the final democratic countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert, a partner in the effort to counter growing jihadi violence linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. Until the junta coup led by anti-Democratic forces in the Niger military who unseated the democratically elected Niger President Mohamed Bazoum.

ECOWAS had demanded that the junta, three weeks after the mutiny that ousted the president, release him and allow the country to return to its pre-coup state. The deadline passed, and ECOWAS issued fresh warnings that military intervention represents an option should their demands continue to be ignored. Leaving Nigeriens preparing for a possible invasion by regional countries.

A "standby force" has been activated for the purpose of restoring order in Niger. There are no signs the standoff is anywhere close to being defused, since the coup leaders remain defiant and ECOWAS determined to restore the presidency, although both sides have given signals of an openness to resolving the crisis through peaceful means. After rebuffing the bloc's efforts at talks, the junta claimed to be open to dialogue.

Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum smiles before a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron, Feb. 16, 2023 at the Elysee Palace in Paris.  (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

 

Instead of arriving at a bargaining table, the coup charged President Bazoum with "high treason", and took to recalling its ambassador from Ivory Coast. Should the bloc determine it will proceed with an invasion, it would likely be comprised of several thousand troops. The consequences, according to conflict experts, would have devastating results. Former colonial occupier of Niger, France and the U.S. have some 2,500 military personnel training the Niger military.

France and the United States, since the coup have suspended military operations, resulting in an increase in jihadi attacks. In an extremist ambush in the Tillaberi region, 17 soldiers and nearly two dozen more were wounded on Tuesday afternoon when a military detachment travelled between villages, representing the first major attack against the Niger army in six months; a worrying sign of potential escalation.

According to analysts, the longer the coup carries on, the less likely it is that an intervention will materialize, while the junta cements its grip on power. In the final analysis, forcing the international community to accept the status quo, much as it has done in Afghanistan. The 25 million Nigeriens live in one of the poorest countries in the world where residents hoped the new regime would forge a new path for the nation.

In the event, however, residents in the capital Niamey are being called upon to volunteer in assisting the army in the face of the threat by the West African regional bloc. An initiative spearheaded by locals in Niamey plans to recruit tens of thousands of volunteers from across the country to register for the Volunteers for the Defense of Niger.

Such volunteers would be expected to help with medical care and provide technical and engineering logistics, as well as fight, should the junta require that of them. "It's an eventuality. We need to be ready whenever it happens", Amsarou Bako, one of the volunteer group founders explained to Western media. Any Niger citizen over 18 years of age is asked to register, the list to be given to the junta to call upon volunteers if needed.

"We do not give a damn about ECOWAS. ECOWAS has been tailor-made for the presidents in power. And we do not need it." 

"Whether ECOWAS intervenes or not, Niger is ready for all options. We are ready. Whatever ECOWAS decides, we are ready."

Omar Amadou, Niamey resident

Supporters of Niger’s ruling junta gather at the start of a protest called to fight for the country’s freedom and push back against foreign interference in Niamey, Niger, Aug. 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

The Democracy That Is Nuclear Pakistan

"The rising instability and militant attacks provide a window to all militant organizations, including ISKP [branch of Islamic State centred in Afghanistan], to ramp up their attacks."

"These attacks on police, political rallies and security forces have ended the brief illusion of peace in Pakistan."

Zahid Hussain, political analyst

 

"People were chanting 'God is Great' as the leaders arrived."

"[I was standing outside the tent] and that was when I heard the deafening sound of the bomb."

Khan Mohammad, local resident

Relatives and mourners carry the casket of a victim killed in Sunday's suicide bombing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Photograph: Mohammad Sajjad/AP

Violent Islamists have long made a comfortable home for themselves in Pakistan. It is where Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda was given safe haven at Abbottabad, when U.S. troops in Afghanistan were searching for his whereabouts after the mastermind of the 9/11 events publicly celebrated its success. Masquerading as a 'partner' with the West in the campaign against terrorism, Pakistan's military and its Inter-Services Intelligence agency founded, trained and equipped the Afghanistan Taliban, recognized universally as a terrorist group.

Pakistan's leaders appear to have overlooked the growing militancy of its own Taliban in the process of supporting one that would eventually misrule its neighbour. The tribal villages in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan are a never-ending source of vibrant, violent extremism, and a threat to Pakistan itself necessitating that the Pakistan military engage in battles as the tribal extremists made an effort to extend their territory, endangering nearby nuclear weapons depots.

From Pakistan, a terrorist group of extremist Islamists infiltrated and attacked Indian Mumbai in a bloody four-day assault and massacre that succeeded in killing over 160 people, by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or Army of the Pure, in November of 2008. The country is a breeding ground for terrorist groups. And now the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the latest suicide bombing that killed 56 people attending an election rally for a pro-Taliban cleric.

The bombing took place in Bajur, wounding close to two hundred people, killing at least five children. A reflection of tribal/sectarian antipathies between Islamist groups, present in Kyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan. The ISIL group targeted the Jamiat Ulema Islam party whose chief is cleric and politician Fazlur Rehman, with ties to both the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban.

An estimated thousand people were crowded within a tent near a market, for a rally preparatory to fall elections. Khan Mohammad, a local resident who stood outside the tent and witnessed the aftereffects of the bomb blast, stated later that he had heard people crying for help. Minutes afterward, ambulances arrived to begin evacuating the hundreds of wounded people.

 

An ambulance is set to transport injured people after a bomb explosion in the Bajur district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday. (Rescue 1122 emergency service/The Associated Press)

 Investigating police knew well before the statement implicating the Islamic State in the carnage, that an initial investigation led them to believe that the regional affiliate of Islamic State, a Taliban rival, would be the likeliest source to have been involved. This, despite that a Pakistani security analyst pointed to factions that had broken off from the Pakistani Taliban as possible suspects, instead. Pakistan does not lack for any number of viral, vicious Islamist terror groups; they find their natural home there.

By Monday funerals were taking place for the dead. Local customs mandate that female relatives and children at their family homes, cry out loudly in their grief, while beating their chests in anguish. Hundreds of men gathered around to follow caskets to mosques and open areas for funeral prayers and then to trek into the hills for burial services in rituals as old as time itself.

Those that could be treated for relatively light wounds sustained in the blast were released from hospital while the critically wounded were transported to the provincial capital of Peshawar by army helicopters. Some critically wounded people died while in hospital and it is expected that the death count may yet climb again as more succumb to their grievous wounds.

A worker inspects the scene of the explosion in the Bajur district of northwest Pakistan on Sunday. (Rescue 1122 emergency service/The Associated Press)

Retrospective Latent Thoughts

"Our inability, unwillingness to put the hammer down in terms of security in the country allowed chaos to ensue, which gave rise to ISIS."

"]The invasion] might be as big a strategic error [as Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 which served to help bring Germany to defeat during the Second World War."

Richard Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, U.S.

"It was worth it because the decision was not simply: 'Does Saddam pose a WMD threat in 2003'?"

"Another question was: 'Would he pose a WMD threat five years later'? To which I think the answer clearly was 'yes'"

"The worst mistake made after the overthrow of Saddam ... was withdrawing in 2011."

John Bolton, Trump administration era National Security Adviser

"We just decided we didn't want to do this stuff anymore. That began ... with president Obama declaring ... he was going to pull all forces out."

"These were U.S. decisions not forced by a collapsing economy, not forced by demonstrators in the streets."

"Our leadership just decided we didn't want to do it any more. And that started the alarm bells ringing ... in the Gulf."

Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador in Iraq

 

"The net result ... has been bad for U.S. leverage, bad for U.S. influence, bad for our ability to partner with countries in the region."

Jim Steinberg, deputy secretary of state, Obama administration

Lesleigh Coyer, 25, of Saginaw, Michigan, lies down in front of the grave of her brother, Ryan Coyer, who served with the U.S. Army in both Iraq and Afghanistan, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia in this March 11, 2013, file photo. Coyer died of complications from an injury sustained in Afghanistan. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/Files UNREST OBITUARY)

 

There was the American withdrawal from VietNam as a national trauma, the withdrawal from Afghanistan as a national shame, and there was the invasion and eventual withdrawal from Iraq that had unforeseen and unanticipated consequences that time has been incapable of healing. American intervention in foreign situations, particularly that of violent conflict has often left it tired and uninspired, demoralized, its determination moribund, leading to inglorious withdrawal. 

 

Hindsight is meant to be helpful in teaching lessons, but some lessons simply fail to resonate, to caution that similar outcomes in dissimilar situations may repeat themselves endlessly. When the United States decided to invade Iraq and remove a tyrannical mass murderer little did the invading forces' executive politicians who made that decision imagine that the ultimate empowering would be to the Islamic Republic of Iran's advantage.

 

And nor did the Bush administration comprehend that in a tribal, sectarian Arab landscape ancient enmities would be violently unleashed with the removal of the tyrant that kept them in check under his clenched fist. And never would any American administration believe that occupying Iraq for no other choice left to them to continue attempting to tamp down Islamist terrorism, would eventually cost them both a loss of face and of influence.

 

When Saddam Hussein's minority Sunni rule came to its final stumbling end to be replaced with a majority Shi'ite government, Iran's Ayatollahs beamed with pleasant anticipation of the removal of an enemy with whom a sustained and deadly war was fought, to be replaced by a regime compatible with its own. Iran's plans to influence states across the Levant was given a good head-start for which they will be eternally grateful, expressed by admiring shouts such as "Death to America!".

 

Iraq war widow Sheryl McIlvaine visits the grave of her husband, U.S. Marine Sgt. James R. McIlvaine, in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, in this October 19, 2009 file photo. REUTERS/Larry Downing/Files

 

When U.S troops were withdrawn in 2011 a vacuum was left in Iraq quickly entered by the Islamic State militants who seized a third of both Iraq and Syria for their Caliphate. Gulf Arab states shuddered when they realized with reluctance they could no longer rely on the protective arm of the United States. In 2014 former President Obama returned some troops to Iraq, A year later he deployed to Syria; at present 2,500 U.S. troops remain in Iraq and 900 in Syria. Mired, as good a word as any.

 

There to continue opposing Islamic State terrorists active as well from North Africa to Afghanistan, steeply, deeply entrenched as Islam's most fervent and vicious jihadists. And then there are the considerable, actually massive costs resulting from U.S. involvement in Iraq and Syria. Estimates published by the "Costs of War" project at Brown University put the price tag for America for the wars in Iraq and Syria at a whopping $1.79 trillion. That includes Pentagon and State Department spending, veterans' care and interest on debt financing for the conflicts.

American military deaths for the past two decades are put at 4,599, with an estimated total death of Iraqi and Syrian civilians, military, police, opposition fighters, media and others coming in at a total of 5500,000 to 584,000; staggering numbers no price can be placed on. This number does not include indirect deaths from disease, displacement or starvation. 

As for American credibility, the decision taken by President Bush to invade based on exaggerated, ultimately erroneous intelligence of weapons of mass destruction was a grave error in judgment. According to war advocate John Bolton, even though errors were made by Washngton, by failing to deploy sufficient troops and administering Iraq rather than swiftly handing that over to Iraqis, removing Saddam justified the costs.

The 2003 invasion didn't immediately undermine American influence in the Gulf, according to Ryan Crocker, but the 2011 withdrawal pushed Arab states in part to begin hedging their bets. Waning U.S. influence can be seen most latterly in China brokering the re-establishment of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia two bitter regional antagonists in terms of power and sectarian rivalries.

Whether President Obama's decision to withdraw tracking a timeline laid out by the Bush administration, reflected an American inability to secure immunity for American troops backed by the Iraqi parliament is a debate raging still among former officials. According to John Bolton, removing Saddam was value given to the cost. Armitage on the other hand responded "FUBAR", a military acronym standing for "Fouled up beyond all recognition", when he was asked the first word coming to mind relating to the invasion and its aftermath.

U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman HM1 Richard Barnett, assigned to the 1st Marine Division, holds an Iraqi child in central Iraq in this March 29, 2003 file photo. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj