17 years after 9/11, number of terrorists goes up
WASHINGTON: Nearly four times as many Islamic militants are operating around the world today as on September 11, 2001, despite nearly two decades of US-led campaigns to combat al Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), a study concludes.
That amounts to as many as 230,000 Salafi jihadi fighters in nearly 70 countries, with the largest numbers in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think-tank.
The report’s conclusions underscore the grit of these terrorist groups, and the policy failures by the US and its allies in responding.
The findings also highlight the continuing potency of the groups’ social-media branding in raising money and attracting recruits as they pivot from battlefield defeats in strongholds like Iraq and Syria to direct guerrilla-style attacks there and in other hot spots.
“Some of these groups do want to target Americans overseas and at home, particularly the IS and al Qaeda,” said Seth Jones, the director of the centre’s transnational threats project and one of the report’s six authors. “All this indicates that terrorism is alive and well, and that Americans should be concerned.”
Indeed, the West has largely failed to address the root causes of terrorism that perpetuate seemingly endless waves of fighters who are increasingly turning to armed drones, artificial intelligence and encrypted communications to foil the allies’ conventional military superiority, the report said.
“Western policy should help regimes that are facing terrorism improve governance and deal effectively with economic, sectarian and other grievances,” the 71-page study concluded.
For example, the report said, the slow pace of reconstruction in Iraqi cities like Ramadi, Fallujah and Mosul once controlled by the IS, also known as ISIS - has angered residents in those Sunni-majority areas and made them more susceptible to militant entreaties.
The report warns that withdrawing US forces from Africa and the Middle East could serve as a boon to these terrorist groups as Washington shifts its national security priorities to confront threats from Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.