ISIS

Syria: ISIS operatives ambushed an Al-Quds Brigade force carrying out searches in the desert region west of Deir ez-Zor. Many casualties were reported. Iraq: This is the second week that there has been a decrease in ISIS’s activity and an increase in the Iraqi security forces’ counterterrorist measures. Northern Sinai: ISIS continues its intensive activity against the Egyptian security forces in northern Sinai. Read more...

Syria: in the Idlib area, routine incidents continued, consisting mainly of exchanges of artillery fire between the Syrian army and the rebel organizations, chiefly the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham. In Iraq, the intensity of ISIS’s attacks this week decreased, after several weeks of intensive activity. However, the Iraq Province continues to be the epicenter of ISIS’s activity. In northern Sinai, the Egyptian army appears to have regained control of most of the area of Rabi’a. In Mozambique, the security forces of Tanzania and Mozambique failed to regain control of the port of Mocimboa da Praia, in the northeast of the country. According to ISIS, 20 Tanzanian soldiers were killed or wounded in the failed counterattack. Read more...

This week as well, high-intensity incidents continued in the Idlib region between the Syrian army and the Headquarters for the Liberation of Al-Sham and the other rebel organizations. One noteworthy attack this week was the activation of an IED against one of the Turkish vehicles in the joint Russian-Turkish patrols. A network calling itself the Chechen Khattab Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. After the end of the wave of attacks (the “Raids of Attrition”), ISIS resumed its “routine” attacks. Read more...

Following the wave of attacks referred to by ISIS as the Raids of Attrition, there has been a decrease in the number of ISIS attacks around the world, and its activity in the various provinces has resumed its “routine” characteristics. One noteworthy attack last week was carried out by ISIS against the Mozambican army in the northeast part of the country. The latest issue of ISIS’s Al-Naba' weekly included an article calling for the release of prisoners by force. In the ITIC’s assessment, the article was published in light of the attack on the prison in Nangarhar (Afghanistan), which may have increased ISIS’s motivation to carry out additional attacks to release the prisoners, especially in Syria and Iraq. Read more...