Extremist groups ‘rebranding’ under IS banner

WASHINGTON: As the US-led coalition that three years is transforming its mission, extremist groups the world over are re- branding themselves under the IS banner,

This means the anti-IS coalition will have a role beyond the Middle East, in- cluding in African nations.

“Pre- existing terrorist organizations like in the Philippines, like in Bangladesh, like in the Sinai and Afghanistan, they have basically rebranded themselves to gain attraction and resources,” the

State Department official told Agence France-Presse.

warn of the jihadists in Iraq and Syria returning to a more traditional insurgency.

“Their repressive ideology continues. The conditions remain present for Daesh to return, and only through coalition and international efforts can the defeat become permanent,” coalition commander Lieutenant General Paul Funk said, using an Arabic acronym for the group, said.

Last year, the Philippines battled for several months the IS-linked Maute Group, whose members seized areas in Marawi City in their bid to establish a caliphate in Asia. The terror group was vanquished in October with the killing of its top leaders Isnilon Hapilon and Omarkhayam Maute, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Until his death, Hapilon was believed to be the emir of IS in Southeast Asia.

With the Islamic State group all but vanquished from its selfproclaimed “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria, the US-led coalition, the coalition is focusing on what it must do to stop a jihadi re-emergence.

Last year, four new African nations signed up to the coalition: Djibouti, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis recently told reporters the mission now is shifting towards stabilization and making sure an “ISIS 2.0” can’t pop up, using an alternate acronym to refer to the jihadist group.

Already, the Pentagon has said it will stay in Syria “as long as we need to.”

“The longer term recovery is going to take a lot of effort and a lot of years after what (IS) did, because they forcibly kept innocent people in the midst of the combat zone, and that meant the residential areas took damage, the public areas -- everything took damage,” he said, adding that a most pressing need is to clear cities and terrain of innumerable bombs, mines and booby traps.

America hastily convened a coalition in 2014 after IS swept across vast tracts of Iraqi and Syrian territory, terrorizing residents and leaving a trail of murder and atrocity in their wake.

The US military began bombing them that summer with the immediate goal of stopping IS from reaching Baghdad after they’d seized a string of major cities including Mosul and Tikrit.

Today, the coalition boasts 70 nations as well as international organizations like NATO and Interpol.

Though some alliance members are there in name only, bigger countries like Britain, France, Canada and Australia are helping in the skies and on the ground.

some coalition members can play an increased role now that the main campaign is over, including by countering IS propaganda, sending in police trainers and providing funding.

Nicholas Heras, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said that ideally, “you are going to have different partners taking on many different aspects of the stabilizing mission, the part that they do well.”

With IS now cleared from 98 percent of the terrain they once held, nations like France and Australia have begun pulling some military assets -- including planes and artillery -- from Iraq and Syria, and the Pentagon has said the tapering off of bombing missions means it has more resources to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But the coalition is keeping an get the support and training they need, and to protect a KurdishArab alliance who fought against IS in Syria.

“If we were to repeat the mistakes that we made when the Iraq War came to a close then we are very much likely to see a repeat of the tragedies that followed,” warned Steve Warren, a retired Army colonel who was top spokesman for the coalition between 2015 and 2016.

“They need to morph into a stabilization force, there’s no question.”

‘Skin in the game’

America has about 2,000 troops in Syria and more than 5,000 in Iraq, augmented in both countries by coalition members who have provided commandos and military trainers.

But where Iraq now has a cohesive military and some degree of political stability, Syria is mired in civil war and President Bashar al-Assad is working with Russia and Iranian militias to maintain control of areas once in the hands of rebels or IS.

That means the US must keep boots on the ground in Syria to Democratic Forces who it backed

“Unless we want to cede eastern Syria to the Iranians, (the coalition) needs to be there,” Warren told AFP.

“Not necessarily the US -- it’s other partners who have skin in this game, which includes every country in Europe,” he added, referring to the refugee crisis that has gripped the continent in part because of Syria.