‘DAESH’ steps up Iraq, Syria attacks
Increasingly bold: UN
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 5, (AP): Islamic State extremists are mounting increasingly bold attacks in Syria and Iraq following their loss of territory in both countries and are planning for the breakout of their fighters in detention facilities, UN experts said in a new report.
The panel of experts said in the report to the UN Security Council that the militant group – known as IS and ISIL – is also exploiting weaknesses in security in both countries.
The experts monitoring sanctions against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda said it is unclear whether the Islamic States’ new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi AlQurayshi, can effectively lead the extremist group’s diverse and far-flung supporters and affiliates.
But the panel said unidentified UN member nations have made a provisional assessment that the strategic direction of the extremist group is unchanged when it comes to administration, propaganda and recruitment – and that command and control between its “core in the conflict zone and affiliates abroad will be maintained.”
Al-Qurayshi’s predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US raid last October in Syria’s last rebel stronghold in Idlib province.
The experts said the issue of foreigners who came to fight for the Islamic State and were part of its socalled “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq “remains acute.”
Member states assess that between one-half and two-thirds of the more than 40,000 who joined the “caliphate” are still alive, they said in the report circulated Friday.
The panel said the reduction in US forces in Syria has raised concerns about the ability of security forces in the country’s northeast “to maintain adequate control over a restive population of detained ISIL fighters, as well as family members, numbering more than 100,000.”
“Many dependents remain equally ideologically committed and their fate is a major concern for the international community,” the experts said. “Some 2,000 foreign terrorist fighters remain in detention in the area.”