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The director of the US National Counterterrorism Center confirmed that the Islamic State “ISIS” continues to expand globally with a score of affiliated factions, despite its uprooting from Syria and the elimination of its leaders.
During a hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security in the US House of Representatives, the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Christopher Miller, said that the extremist organization “has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to recover from the huge losses suffered over the past six years by relying on a dedicated group of veteran leaders from the middle ranks and networks. ” Big secret, relieving pressure against terrorism. “
Since the removal in October of the organization’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and other prominent leaders, the new “leader” Muhammad Saeed Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla has handled further attacks by factions affiliated with the organization, which they are geographically far from leadership.
On Thursday, the organization claimed an attack in Niger on August 9, which resulted in eight deaths, including six French aid workers.
Miller said that in Syria and Iraq, ISIS had carried out assassinations and attacks using mortar shells and improvised explosive devices “at a steady rate.”
Among these attacks, an operation carried out in May resulted in the death and injury of dozens of Iraqi soldiers.
Miller said the organization documented its success with video recordings that it used as propaganda to show that the militants were still organized and active despite being uprooted from the area where they declared a “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq.
He added that the organization is currently focusing on freeing thousands of its members who are with their families in detention centers in northeast Syria, in the absence of a coordinated international path to decide on their status.
Miller said the global organizing network outside of Syria and Iraq “currently includes some twenty factions between a branch and a network.”
He added that the organization is achieving mixed results, but is posting its strongest performance in Africa, as evidenced by the Niger attack.
ISIS also seeks to attack Western targets, according to Miller, but counterterrorism operations prevent it.
As for the organization “Al Qaeda”, rival of the Islamic State and that launched the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, it was weakened by the elimination of its leaders and most prominent figures, but it is still active.
Miller said that al Qaeda is still determined to launch attacks in the United States and Europe, and that it was linked to the extremist trained element of the Saudi Air Force that killed three sailors at the US military base in Pensacola, Florida, in December 2019.
According to Miller, al-Qaeda-affiliated factions in Yemen and Africa may still launch bloody attacks, but the capabilities of the organization’s formations in India and Pakistan have been greatly weakened.
In Afghanistan, Al Qaeda’s presence has been reduced to “a few dozen fighters whose main objective is survival.”
Under an agreement signed by the Taliban with the United States in February, the insurgents agreed to prevent al Qaeda from using the territory of Afghanistan as a safe haven and starting point for carrying out attacks.
But despite the agreement, the extremist organization still maintains a close relationship with the Afghan rebels, the Pentagon revealed on Wednesday.
