ISIS no longer rules a territory. But its recruits still pose a global threat

CNN — It’s many years since ISIS, also known as Islamic State, held sway over much of Syria and northern Iraq a time when it spawned affiliates throughout Africa and Asia and organized a series of deadly terror attacks in European cities. Global image Katz said at the time of the Moscow attack in March that “ISIS’ global support rests in no small part on its image as a capable organization, and this devastating massacre in Russia will only feed into that image.” Investigators are still probing how the suspect in New Orleans became radicalized but there is still plenty of pro-ISIS content to be found online. Amira Jadoon, who has written a book about the group, said that over the last three years ISIS-K “has grown more ambitious and aggressive in its efforts to gain notoriety and relevance across South and Central Asia.” Emergency services vehicles outside Crocus City Hall concert hall following the shooting incident in Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, on March 22, 2024. Edmund Fitton-Brown, former coordinator of UN sanctions and threat assessment regarding ISIS and al Qaeda, told CNN last year that ISIS-K “has plugged into the central Asian diaspora, primarily in Russia and Turkey and to some extent in Germany.” Fitton-Brown said ISIS also benefited from “ambient rage” among radicalized individuals at the scale of deaths in Gaza, and the release of some former jihadis from European jails after serving their sentences. Kurilla recently warned ISIS planned to “break out of detention the more than 8,000 ISIS operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria.” Were ISIS fighters able to escape and begin terror attacks in neighboring Turkey or even travel to western Europe, the image of the group among like-minded lone wolves would only be enhanced.