ISIS

On December 30, 2022, ISIS operatives attacked an Egyptian police checkpoint in the city of Ismailia in Egypt. Three policemen and a civilian were killed and 11 policemen were wounded. This is the third ISIS attack in the past year in the Suez Canal area and the first in three years on the western side of the canal. The incidents during the past year testify to the effort that ISIS is making to expand its activity in Egypt to new areas. It should be noted that the Suez Canal is a strategic region importance for world trade in general and for the Egyptian economy in particular Read more...

On November 30, 2022, ISIS’s Al-Furqan Media Foundation published an audiotape of the organization's spokesman, in which he announces the death of Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the organization's leader, and the appointment of Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi as the new leader. In the spokesman's statement, no details were provided regarding the identity of the two leaders and the circumstances of the former leader's death. The United States Army Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that Al-Qurashi was killed in mid-October 2022 as part of a military operation conducted by the Free Syrian Army. Al-Qurashi's killing was a blow to the organization, which experienced a particularly difficult year during which it was forced to reduce the scope of its activities. In the ITIC's assessment, in the wake of the leader’s death, ISIS will strive to escalate its attacks but it is possible that due to its weakness, the intensity of the escalation will be less than before. Read more...