The threat posed by the Islamic State was back in the headlines Wednesday after a New Year's Day attack on a crowded street in New Orleans by a man with possible ties to the terrorist network.
Shamsuddin Jabbar, a U.S.-born military veteran living in Texas, drove a pickup truck with an ISIS flag into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more.
However, the FBI has not confirmed any direct “affiliations” or “relationships” with the notorious terrorist network, which has expanded in recent years around the world, particularly in areas such as Africa's Sahel region. “Defeated.”
On January 1, 2025, law enforcement officers from multiple agencies were on the scene on Bourbon Street after a man allegedly drove his car into a crowd of people early on New Year's Day in New Orleans, killing at least 15 people. are. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images)
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“Claims of defeat for the Islamic State are as premature as claims of defeat for al-Qaeda,” Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. “These groups may have setbacks, but they persevere.
“The Islamic State poses a threat to Afghanistan. It has significant networks in Africa, particularly in the Sahel and East Africa, Somalia, and continues in Iraq and Syria,” he added. Ta.
Although the FBI has not confirmed that the New Orleans attacker had any direct ties to ISIS, reports suggest that the suspect is clearly sympathetic to the terrorist network, and that a series of videos posted on his Facebook page He is said to have “sworn allegiance to ISIS.'' According to the New York Times.
The FBI has not yet announced a motive for the attack, and Roggio explained that the incident is unlikely to signal a “resurrection” of ISIS, but security experts say the terrorist network's resilience is He emphasized that it is declining. Areas that were previously opposed.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the collapse last month of Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime into an al-Qaeda faction called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham have created a security vacuum in the Middle East and South Asia. . The rise of ISIS after the US withdrawal from Iraq. Security experts warn that ISIS and other terrorist groups could exploit this power differential.
People gather in Umayyad Square in Damascus, Syria, on December 8, waving guns to celebrate the fall of the Syrian regime. (Ali Haji Suleiman/Getty Images)
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ISIS-K, a regional branch of a terrorist organization originating from Iraq and Syria, attacked Afghans fleeing a Taliban takeover amid the US withdrawal in August 2021, and carried out suicide bombings that killed 13 US military personnel and approximately 170 people. The incident attracted international attention. Afghan civilians.
The Taliban takeover raised concerns that Afghanistan would become a safe haven for terrorists like Taliban-allied al-Qaeda, Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Taliban and other jihadist groups, but Afghanistan's new governance The mechanism Unable to counter ISIS-K.
ISIS-K is barely done flourish in Afghanistan However, with the collapse of the Democratic Party's government and the withdrawal of US troops, opposition is no longer as fervent.
“The Taliban and the Islamic State are enemies. The Taliban will go after the Islamic State while we are gone – that doesn’t make them counter-terrorism partners, but the Taliban now have a dual threat against them. No — “The United States targeting Islamic State and the Taliban targeting Islamic State, they have greater freedom of movement,” Roggio said.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters raise ISIL flags and weapons on a street in Mosul on June 23, 2014. (Reuters photo)
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The security expert said the Taliban and al-Qaeda remain a greater threat than ISIS when it comes to the threat posed to Afghanistan and the United States and its Western allies, but ISIS is increasingly “able to operate.” He emphasized that there is now more room.
“The Assad regime was an enemy of the Islamic State,” Roggio said. “With the removal of one of the Islamic State's enemies, there will be even more room for ISIS to regain control in a region where it already has a significant presence.”
However, there is a third region where ISIS' roots are strong and where it could return if the United States once again withdraws its forces from the region.
In September, the Biden administration, in coordination with the Iraqi government, announced that the United States would end its military mission in Iraq to fight the Islamic State group by 2026. The move drew immediate concern from security experts who argued that ISIS remains the biggest threat. Doing so could further endanger U.S. troops still fighting terrorist networks in Syria.
Details of the troop reduction remain unclear, and no plans have emerged to renegotiate changes to the withdrawal plan in the wake of the collapse of the Assad regime and the ambiguous situation in Syria.
It is even less likely that the incoming Trump administration will push for a U.S. military presence in Iraq despite the threat from ISIS, given that it has pushed to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan during its first term.
Soldiers participating in Operation Inherent Resolve stand in formation and salute the U.S. flag during a Memorial Day ceremony at Union III in Baghdad, May 27, 2024. (US military)
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“The United States must decide whether to remain in Iraq and Syria to counter Islamic State and other targeted groups,” Roggio said. “And if we decide to stay, we need to strengthen.” [its] The presence is intended to thwart the threat of militia groups attacking U.S. forces.
“US efforts to contain the Islamic State are critical. Without the US presence, groups like the Islamic State would thrive given the lawlessness,” the security expert added. “Assad's regime was terrible, it was a horrible regime, but they fought the Islamic State. So without their presence, there would be another terrorist organization nominally controlling large areas of Syria. That's it.
“As we learned in Afghanistan, terrorists cannot be trusted to fight other terrorists,” Roggio added.
Fox News Digital was unable to reach Trump's transition team for comment about Trump's plans for U.S. troops in the Middle East.
