While there is little doubt that ISIS had by the summer of 2019 lost control over most, if not all, of its territorial “caliphate,” it is also clear that the group has not been fully defeated, strategically or militarily. These claims of victory raise at least two important questions: First, to what extent has ISIS been defeated and, second, which country, the United States or Russia, deserves credit for contributing the most to this cause? The short answer would be this: The U.S.-led coalition did far more to clear ISIS out of Iraq and Syria than Russia and its allies however, even though the terror group no longer controls significant territory in these countries, its fighters continue to carry out deadly attacks there, waging what the Institute for the Study of War recently called “a capable insurgency” with “a global finance network,” showing that any purported victory over ISIS-whether claimed by Washington or Moscow-is extremely “fragile.” 1 In early December 2017, a few days after the Defense Ministry officially told him that “all ISIS gangs on Syrian territory have been destroyed and the territory itself has been liberated,” Putin travelled to Syria and addressed Russian troops at the Hmeimim military base, saying that, “in a little more than two years, Russia’s Armed Forces, together with Syria’s army, routed the most battleworthy group of international terrorists. President Vladimir Putin has made similar comments about the role of Russia and its soldiers. We have 100 percent of the caliphate and we’re rapidly pulling out of Syria,” he said at a Cabinet meeting. troops on July 16, 2019: “We did a great job with the caliphate. President Donald Trump, for example, effectively announced the group’s defeat by U.S. Yet the Russian and American presidents have each suggested at different times that ISIS, as the group is also known, has been eliminated and that it was their respective militaries that had contributed the most to achieve that result. military bases in Syria, and American soldiers still dying in combat with the Islamic State in Iraq, the terror group’s strength may seem hard to gauge. While the terror threat is rising most in Africa, ISIS still remains entrenched in various Middle Eastern countries after the group "reasserted itself somewhat in Iraq" and "groups aligned with continue to dominate the Idlib area" of Syria, the report said.With Russian flags now flying over abandoned U.S. In Europe and other "non-conflict zones," where the "movement and gathering of people" slowed because of closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the threat of "online radicalization" has risen, according to the report. monitoring team, told CNN.Īreas of the world that didn't see a growing threat from terror groups still contended with "broad continuity in terms of the nature and source of the threats" from associations like ISIS, the report said. Than ISISĪnother main issue the group tried to pinpoint in the report was the possibility that terror groups could move forward with some previously planned attacks as COVID-19 lockdowns are withdrawn or eased, Edmund Fitton-Brown, coordinator of the U.N. Ex-Trump Official Says GOP Greater Security Threat to U.S.Can Iran Save Afghan Shiites and Help China, Russia Prevent War Next Door?.What Russia, China, Iran Want in Afghanistan When U.S.
Iran's Khamenei Turns Fire on 'Evil' U.S.
is set to complete a withdrawal of troops stationed in Afghanistan, where ISIS and al Qaeda are rooted, by Aug. A new report from the United Nations warns that "heightened threats" are emerging from ISIS and other terror groups, most prominently in Africa.