Baghdad.- A decade after the Islamic State militant group declared its caliphate across large parts of Iraq and Syria, the extremists no longer control any of the country’s most prominent leaders, and are largely out of the world’s headlines.
The group continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that left large numbers of people dead.
Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq continue to carry out attacks against government forces in both countries, as well as against US-backed Syrian fighters, at a time when the Iraqi government is negotiating with Washington over a possible withdrawal of US troops.
The group, which at one point attacked tens of thousands of fighters and sympathizers from around the world in order to reach Syria and Iraq, and who at its peak dominated an area half the size of the United Kingdom, was notorious for its brutality.
He beheaded civilians, murdered 1,700 Iraqi soldiers he captured in a short period, and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraq’s oldest religious minorities.
“Daesh remains a threat to international security. We remain intense and determined to combat and destroy any remnants of those groups that share Daesh ideology,” said US Army Major General JB Vowell.
In recent years, the group’s branches have gained strength around the world, mainly in Africa and Afghanistan, although its leadership is believed to be in Syria.
The four leaders of the group who have been killed since 2019 were killed in Syria.
A coalition of more than 80 countries led by the United States formed a decade ago to fight Isis, the alliance continues to carry out raids against militants who have hidden in Syria and Iraq.
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