The threat posed by ISIS is back in the news after the crisis New Year's Day attack On a busy New Orleans street on Wednesday by a man who may have ties to the terrorist network.
Shams al-Din Jabbar, a US-born citizen living in Texas and an Army veteran, drove a pickup truck bearing an ISIS flag into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more.
However, the FBI has not confirmed its direct “association” or “association” with the notorious terrorist network that has been expanding around the world in recent years, particularly in regions such as the Sahel region of Africa, despite a 2019 confirmation that the terrorist network was It was “defeated”.
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least 15 people were killed when a person drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Year's Day on January 1, 2025 in New Orleans. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images)
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“Claims of defeating ISIS, like claims of defeating Al Qaeda, are premature,” Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. He added: “These groups may face setbacks, but they are resilient.
He added, “ISIS poses a threat from Afghanistan. It has a large network in Africa, especially in the Sahel region and in East Africa, in Somalia. Its network in Iraq and Syria still exists.”
While the FBI has not confirmed that the New Orleans attacker was directly involved with ISIS, reports have indicated that he was apparently sympathetic to the terrorist network and “pledged allegiance to ISIS” in a series of videos posted to his Facebook page. According to the New York Times.
The FBI has not yet announced the motive behind the attack, and Roggio explained that this incident is unlikely to indicate a “resurgence” of ISIS, although the security expert highlighted that the terrorist network increasingly finds itself facing less resistance. In areas that were previously opposed to it.
Withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and The fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria Last month, the al-Qaeda-derived organization called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham left security vacuums in the Middle East and South Asia — similar to what contributed to the rise of ISIS after the US withdrawal from Iraq. Security experts have warned that ISIS and other terrorist networks may exploit these power gaps.
People wave rifles in the air as they gather to celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime in Umayyad Square on December 8 in Damascus, Syria. (Ali Haj Suleiman/Getty Images)
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ISIS-K – the regional branch of the terrorist group I grew up in Iraq and Syria – It gained international attention in August 2021 when it attacked Afghans fleeing the Taliban's takeover amid the US withdrawal and used a suicide bombing to kill 13 US service members and about 170 Afghan civilians.
The Taliban's seizure of power has raised fears that Afghanistan could become a safe haven for terrorists such as Taliban allies Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and other jihadist groups, although there are also fears that Afghanistan's new ruling body Unable to oppose ISIS-K.
ISIS-K has been largely unable to do this It flourishes noticeably in Afghanistan After the fall of the democratic government and the withdrawal of American forces, but it is also no longer strongly opposed.
“The Taliban and ISIS are enemies. The Taliban are pursuing ISIS even in our absence – that does not make them a partner in the fight against terrorism, but now they do not face the double threat – the United States is targeting ISIS and the Taliban is targeting ISIS – they have more freedom,” Roggio said. In motion.
A fighter from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) carries the organization's flag and a weapon in a street in the city of Mosul, June 23, 2014. (Reuters photos)
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The security expert said that when it comes to Afghanistan and the threats facing the United States and its Western allies, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda still represent a greater threat than ISIS, although he stressed that ISIS increasingly has “more space to operate.”
“The Assad regime was an enemy of the Islamic State,” Roggio said. He added: “An enemy of ISIS has been removed from the list, so this will give ISIS more space to renew its strength in a region where it already has a significant presence.”
However, there is a third region where ISIS has strong roots and could see a resurgence if the United States again withdraws its forces from the region.
The Biden administration announced in September that the United States, in coordination with the Iraqi government, would end its military mission in Iraq to fight ISIS by 2026. The move was met with immediate concern from security experts who claimed ISIS still poses a significant threat to the United States. This could endanger American soldiers still fighting the terrorist network in Syria.
Details regarding the withdrawal of forces are still unclear, and no plans have emerged to renegotiate changing the withdrawal plans after the collapse of the Assad regime and the ambiguous situation in Syria.
It also remains unlikely that the incoming Trump administration will push to keep American soldiers in Iraq despite the threat posed by ISIS given the president-elect's efforts to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan during his first term.
Service members part of Operation Inherent Resolve stand in formation and salute the U.S. flag during the Memorial Day Ceremony at Union III in Baghdad on May 27, 2024. (US Army)
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“The United States must decide whether it wants to remain in Iraq and Syria in order to confront ISIS and other targeted groups,” Roggio said. “If it decides to stay, it must strengthen its presence to deter militia threats attacking American forces.
The security expert added: “American efforts to keep ISIS down are critical. Without the American presence there, groups like ISIS will thrive in the absence of law.” “Despite the bad nature of the Assad regime, It was a terrible systemYou fought ISIS, and without them, you would have another terrorist organization nominally controlling large areas of Syria.
“As we learned in Afghanistan, you cannot trust terrorists to fight other terrorists,” Roggio added.
Fox News Digital was unable to reach Trump's transition team for comment on his plans regarding US forces in the Middle East.
