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[Terrorism] ISIS Responsible For 1,000 Deaths Outside Iraq And Syria

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Cohete Rojo, Nov 22, 2015.

  1. Cohete Rojo

    Cohete Rojo Contributing Member

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    There are charts, maps, and a list of the attacks at the link. Since January 2015 there have been about 1,000 outside the warzone who have been killed by ISIS.

    [rQUOTEr]ISIS Is Likely Responsible for Nearly 1,000 Civilian Deaths Outside Iraq and Syria

    Recent terrorist attacks in Paris and the downing of a Russian passenger jet have focused the West’s attention on the Islamic State’s civilian toll outside Iraq and Syria.

    But the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has a history of attacking mosques, hotels, busy city streets and other civilian targets in mostly non-Western countries. If the Islamic State is responsible for the Paris killings and the explosion of the Russian plane, as officials on both sides of the Atlantic seem to believe, the civilian death toll outside Iraq and Syria would rise to nearly 1,000 since January.

    It would also signify a major leap in the group’s ability to direct attacks on the West.

    Until now, the Islamic State has relied mainly on “lone wolf” followers to strike Western targets with relatively low-tech assaults — shootings, the taking of hostages, hit-and-runs — that draw wide attention but do not cause mass casualties.

    “This is much different than a normal lone wolf-inspired attack,” Patrick M. Skinner, a former C.I.A. operations officer now with the Soufan Group, a security consultancy, said about the Paris attacks. “This was choreographed.”

    “The fact that they could do this, especially in Paris, where the intelligence service is really good, clearly there’s a hole somewhere,” Mr. Skinner said.

    The Islamic State has been expanding beyond its base in Iraq and Syria since it declared a caliphate, or Islamic state, in June 2014. The group is focused on three parallel tracks, according to Harleen Gambhir, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War:

    • inciting regional conflict with attacks in Iraq and Syria;
    • building relationships with jihadist groups that can carry out military operations across the Middle East and North Africa;
    • and inspiring, and sometimes helping, ISIS sympathizers to conduct attacks in the West.

    “The goal,” Ms. Gambhir said, “is that through these regional affiliates and through efforts to create chaos in the wider world, the organization will be able to expand, and perhaps incite a global apocalyptic war.”

    The Islamic State has declared official provinces — or wilayat — in areas of Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen that had networks loyal to ISIS, many of which have adopted the organization’s signature brutality.

    While it is still unclear to what extent the Islamic State’s core leadership in Raqqa communicates with its affiliates, Mr. Skinner said ISIS command and control was probably involved in picking the target and the timing of the Russian plane attack after its Sinai affiliate told them they had someone who could plant a bomb.

    However, Mr. Skinner said, in the wake of the Paris attacks, it is more troubling that ISIS leaders appear to have the ability to direct terrorist cells in distant cities. “It’s a trilogy of terror. They control parts of Iraq and Syria, have wilayats that claim to hold territory, and now they have these cells.”[/rQUOTEr]
     

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