Factbox – What is the Islamic State, the group involved in the German stabbing? By Reuters
Written by Michael Georgy
DUBAI (Reuters) – Islamic State has described a 26-year-old Syrian man arrested after a stabbing incident in the western German city of Solingen as a “soldier” for the group.
Despite being largely decimated by the US-led coalition in the past few years, IS has managed a major offensive as it seeks to rebuild.
These include an attack on a Russian concert hall in March that killed at least 143 people and two explosions in the Iranian city of Kerman in January that killed nearly 100 people.
The Sunni group also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a mosque in Oman in July that killed at least nine people, raising fears that the group could try to make a comeback in new territory.
In August, authorities said a 19-year-old Austrian boy suspected of masterminding a planned attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State leader.
The following are facts about movement.
HISTORY
At the height of its power from 2014-2017, the IS “caliphate” held large swaths of Syria and Iraq, inflicting death and torture on those who opposed its brand of Islam. Its soldiers repeatedly defeated the armies of both countries and carried out or inspired attacks in many cities around the world.
Its leader at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in 2019 by US special forces in northwestern Syria, rose from unknown territory to lead this radical group and called himself the “caliph” of all Muslims.
The caliphate collapsed in Iraq, where it once had a base just 30 minutes from Baghdad, and in Syria, after an ongoing military campaign by the US-led coalition.
The new leader, who goes by the pseudonym Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, is still shrouded in secrecy, almost a year after being appointed.
NEW STRATEGIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
IS has changed tactics since the fall of its leadership and a series of other setbacks in the Middle East.
Once based in the Syrian city of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul, where it sought to rule as a central government, the group took refuge in separate areas of the two fractured countries.
Its fighters are scattered in independent cells, its leadership is secret and its overall size is difficult to measure. The UN estimates 10,000 in its main locations.
The movement went underground and sleeper cells began to attack, according to an Iraqi government security adviser who helps track IS.
All important foreign troops have fled Iraq to countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan. Most have joined the Islamic State's Khorasan branch (ISIS-K), named after the old region that includes parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
It operates on the borders of Iran and Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sanaullah Ghafari, the leader of the Afghan branch of Afghanistan, Sanaullah Ghafari, has overseen its transformation into one of the most formidable branches of the Islamic network in the world, able to operate far from its bases on the border of Afghanistan.
AFRICA
The Islamic State – often referred to as ISIS, ISIL, or the pejorative Daesh – has also made its mark in parts of Africa.
In Uganda, soldiers from the IS-linked rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), have carried out a series of attacks in recent months, including a massacre at a boarding school, the killing of a couple last month, and a deadly raid on a village. at least three people.
This group, which started with a rebellion in Uganda, has transferred its campaign to the neighboring country of the Democratic Republic of Congo where it has attacked many times.
Several other groups have pledged allegiance to IS in West Africa and across the Sahel. Their affiliates control large rural areas in Mali, Niger and northern Burkina Faso and North Africa.
In January 2023, US forces carried out an operation that killed a senior IS leader in northern Somalia. The UN fears that militant groups may take advantage of the political instability in Sudan, which is wracked by civil war.
ALL POWER
The US National Counterterrorism Center said the threat posed by IS and another militant group al Qaeda “is at a low level with the suppression of the most dangerous elements”.
But it went on to warn that part of the IS branches are now operating in forests across Africa and “may be ready for further expansion”.
It said the group had lost three leaders and 13 other high-ranking officials in Iraq and Syria since the beginning of 2022 “contributing to the loss of technology and the decline of ISIS attacks in the Middle East”.
