Casting light on how ISIS spends on its fighters after its defeat in Syria and Iraq

Shaimaa Hefzi

ISIS, aka Daesh, has gained lots of money during its control of territories in Syria and Iraq. Although the terrorist organization has lost these territories, it still has most of these funds to launch terrorist operations.

ISIS affiliates have recently launched what can be described as simple terrorist operations such as shooting and other attacks via explosive devices.

Mohamed Gomaa, an expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that ISIS still has some of the funds it had gained during its control over territories in Syria and Iraq to ​​finance terrorist operations.

“The terrorist organization also gets money from donations and money-laundering activities. ISIS has carried out 90 operations in 8 different regions of the world in 4 days. This is a second rise of ISIS,” Gomaa told THE REFERENCE.

“Moreover, ISIS funds and fighters are not located in one place. ISIS announced 3 affiliates in Africa and Asia right after its defeat in Syria,” he said.

Gomaa said ISIS attacks security targets via shooting, explosives and ambushes. “ISIS claimed that it had destroyed 62 vehicles and 7 military bases in 4 days,” he added.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres suggested that a pause in ISIS attacks was an intermission “that may not last long, possibly not even until the end of 2019″.

A similar UN report presented to the Security Council on July 15 said warnings in a video appearance by ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in late May that ISIS remains relevant internationally, should be taken seriously. The group is now relying on attacks inspired by its ideology, rather than those mounted by bona fide rank and file.

The US administration said in May that ISIS had lost “100 per cent” of its territory.

Guterres said while the demise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq had deprived the group of oil revenue, it retained a network of subsidiary groups and sympathetic individuals across the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Sunni discontent with the political domination of Iranian-backed Shiite groups in Baghdad after Saddam Hussein’s downfall in 2003 fuelled a marginalization of Sunnis. Al Qaeda and ISIS took advantage of the situation and used it as a tool for recruitment.

US counterterror officials estimate that more than 45,000 fighters from 110 countries flocked to Syria and Iraq, almost all to fight for ISIS.

But the new UN assessment warns that number could be higher, and that “up to 30,000 of those who travelled to the so-called ‘caliphate’ may still be alive.”