As many as 10,000 loyalists of ISIS still exist in Iraq, Syria; possess great threat

NewsBharati    23-Jan-2018
Total Views |

Washington, January 23: As many as 10,000 loyalists of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group still existing in Iraq and Syria which possess a great threat to these two Middle East countries. Notably, Islamic State, the most dangerous terrorist organization which is on the brink of extinction in middle-east countries and therefore it is heading towards western countries.

 

The US government and foreign experts on Monday issued a warning and said that Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is still a dangerous threat, with as many as 10,000 loyalists still within the two Middle East countries.

US officials stated that though the number of active ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq is estimated to be between 1,000 and 3,000 but loyalists to the terror group are predicted to be 6,000 to 8,000, which includes possible lone-wolf attackers. However, in 2014, ISIS terror groups had 45,000 terrorists when it overtook many provinces of Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, Hisham al-Hashimi, an adviser to the Iraqi government in its fight against ISIS confirmed that the number of ISIS loyalists in Iraq and Syria is closer to 10,000. That presence was demonstrated with a double suicide bombing in Baghdad last week that killed 100.

ISIS swept into Iraq in 2014, taking large swaths of territory in the north and west, including Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. The Iraqi government declared victory over ISIS last year after Iraqi forces backed by the US-led coalition ousted the terror group from its last militant-held town of Rawa in November. ISIS’s holdings are now pushed to patches of desert along the border with Syria.

On the other side, the US-led coalition and its allies in Syria also took back the ISIS capital of Raqqa in October and continue to battle ISIS throughout the region. In December last year, the United States-led international coalition fighting Islamic State estimated that less than 1,000 terrorists belonging to the hardline Sunni militant group remain in Iraq and Syria.

Syria is affected by the civil war since many years due to which thousands of civilians lost their lives while millions were displaced. While Iraq is affected due to self-proclaimed caliphate ISIS captured many important governorates. Over 80,000 foreigners from countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France and the Caucasus have been recruited and traveled to Syria and Iraq between 2013 and 2016 to fight alongside ISIS.