THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR CLAIMS ISIS IS FAR FROM DEFEATED

ISIS is poised for a 'devastating' comeback with the help of secret billions and sleeper cells, new report warns

By George Martin

Daily Mail
June 30, 2019

ISIS could be set for a 'devastating' comeback despite its defeat earlier this year - a bombshell study has revealed.

US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War published a report suggesting the caliphate is alive and well and is set to re-emerge imminently with deadly consequences.

According to the report, ISIS still maintains several sleeper cells and has accrued billions of pounds worth of funding which has allowed it to remain a threat.

'The slow-motion reduction of ISIS territory and strength initiated by President Obama and continued by President Trump gave the group plenty of time to plan and prepare for the next phase of the war,' the report states.

'Its forces are now dispersed across both countries and are waging a capable insurgency.

'Its successful reconstitution of a physical caliphate in Iraq and Syria would produce new waves of attacks in Europe and dangerously legitimise ISIS's narrative of inevitable long-term victory.'

The jihadi group was officially wiped out in Syria earlier this year, but its leaders and soldiers are now spread across the Middle East.

According to the report, ISIS has a 'global finance network that funded its transition back to an insurgency' and it still retains potent weapons.

Leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, long thought to have been killed in a US drone strike, has reportedly been reforming the group for a new wave of violence.

The study states that ISIS now controls vast amounts of rural land in Iraq and has replaced local leaders with its own representatives who are collecting tax to fund its war.

The report continues: 'ISIS has systematically eliminated village leaders and civilians who cooperated with anti-IS forces.

'It has reimposed taxes on local populations in its historical support zones, displacing civilians and de facto controlling small pockets of terrain in Iraq.'

It also suggests President Donald Trump was wrong to announce the territorial defeat of ISIS.

It calls on the US to take 'immediate steps' to quell the death cult's resurgence in both Iraq and Syria.