Would ISIS revenge for al-Baghdadi’s killing?

Ahmed Adel

The killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northeastern Syria has angered the members of the terrorist organization vowing revenge against the United States.

This threat raises a number of questions about the intention of ISIS to carry out terrorist attacks on the United States.

Researcher Hisham El-Naggar, an expert on Islamist groups, said that ISIS would be active in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan.

“It is easy to threaten US interests in those areas,” El-Naggar told THE REFERENCE.

“Al-Qaeda hit targets inside the US on September 11, 2001,” he said.

Former al-Jihad leader Nabil Naeem said that the US has so many complicated targets worldwide. “That makes it a target for terrorist groups all the time,” Naeem told THE REFERENCE, adding that ISIS will not be able to hit US military bases, which are totally secured.

“However, the terrorist organization will try to attack US targets in Iraq,” he said, noting that ISIS will also attack targets in Europe via lone wolves.

In the same vein, researcher Mohamed Rabie El-Deehi said al-Baghdadi’s killing has raised an essential question about the future of ISIS.

“I believe that the killing of al-Baghdadi will not impact the organization as everyone knows very well that al-Baghdadi was not running ISIS,” he told THE REFERENCE.

However, El-Deehi said that the threats made by ISIS members “cannot be ignored”.

“The lone wolves will play a major role to show loyalty to the organization’s new leader especially ahead of the US presidential election,” he added.