The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), is spreading terror around the world as it influences followers and encourages them to carry out attacks.
Indonesia
The Indonesian police have detained seven people in connection with a “terror plot” aimed at attacking Pope Francis during his visit to Jakarta earlier last week. Most of the arrests occurred on September 2 and 3 in Jakarta, as well as in the surrounding cities of Bogor and Bekasi, West Sumatra province, and Bangka Belitung Islands province.
A Pakistani national in Canada plotted to slaughter as many Jewish people as possible before he was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, federal prosecutors said.
Searches linked to the planned attack on Pope Francis uncovered bows, arrows, a drone, and ISIS leaflets. Some of the people who were arrested had pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Canada
ISIS influence has spread to the western hemisphere in recent years and there have been several attempts by westerners to carry out an ISIS attack.
Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was arrested this week in Canada, where he planned to travel to New York to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn, according to the criminal complaint.
Khan began posting on social media and communicating on an encrypted messaging app about his support for ISIS last November, the complaint said. He then began communicating with two undercover law enforcement officers, allegedly telling them about a “coordinated assault” using AR-style rifles to “target Israeli Jewish chabads.”
Khan allegedly told the officers Oct. 7 and Oct. 11 “are the best days for targeting Jews.”
Oct. 7 marks the first anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel and Oct. 11 is Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year in Judaism.
Khan boasted that “New york is perfect to target jews” because it has the “largest Jewish population In america” and therefore, “even if we dont attack a[n] Event[,] we could rack up easily a lot of jews.” Khan proclaimed that “we are going to nyc to slaughter them,” and sent a photograph of the specific area inside of a location where he planned to carry out the attack, according to the criminal complaint.
Syria
U.S. troops and allies captured an ISIS leader who helped members of the militant group’s fighters escape from a detention center in Syria, the United States Central Command announced Monday.
American troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led coalition, captured ISIS facilitator Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal on Sunday — days after “five ISIS Foreign Terrorist Fighter detainees (Two Russians, two Afghans, and one Libyan) escaped from the Raqqah Detention Facility,” per a CENTCOM statement.
The SDF recaptured two of the escapees, but CENTCOM said three remained at large.
ISIS was ousted from the last territory it held in the Middle East in 2019, in Baghouz, Syria, but CENTCOM warns that the group’s “primary objective … remains to free their fighters currently held in detention and subsequently fuel an ISIS revival.”
Iraq
Two weeks ago, United States and Iraqi military forces conducted a raid in western Iraq that targeted ISIS leaders and killed 15 ISIS militants.
Seven U.S. military service members who participated in the early-hour raid were wounded or sustained injuries in the larger operation, according to a defense official who said all the service members were in stable condition.
“U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces and Iraqi Security Forces conducted a partnered raid in Western Iraq in the early hours of Aug. 29, resulting in the death of 15 ISIS operatives,” a statement from U.S. Central Command said.
“This operation targeted ISIS leaders to disrupt and degrade ISIS’ ability to plan, organize, and conduct attacks against Iraqi civilians, as well as U.S. citizens, allies, and partners throughout the region and beyond,” it said.
On March 11, 2024, the annual US intelligence assessment reported that the regional affiliates of ISIS and al Qaeda are likely to expand in the future, despite leadership losses. The rival Islamist groups, which are both Sunni, are also likely to continue targeting US citizens and Western interests more broadly even as the Sunni global jihad shifts to Africa. “This threat is mostly likely to manifest in small cells or individuals inspired by foreign terrorist organizations and violent extremist ideologies to conduct attacks,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) warned. The report also highlighted the capabilities of Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite group backed by Iran, to target Americans worldwide.
Gaza
The war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas may “have a generational impact on terrorism,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned the Senate Intelligence Committee. Al Qaeda and ISIS have “directed supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and U.S. interests.”
According to research conducted by the Wilson Center, both al-Qa‘ida and ISIS, inspired by the Hamas attack against Israel, have directed their supporters to conduct attacks against Israeli and U.S. interests. The Hamas attack is encouraging individuals to conduct acts of antisemitic and Islamophobic terror worldwide and is galvanizing individuals to leverage the Palestinian plight for recruitment and inspiration to conduct attacks.
Europe
ISIS has urged its followers to carry out attacks against Jews in Europe to support Palestinians in the context of the war in Gaza.
In an editorial entitled “Jihad in Europe,” published by the Al-Naba organization, the radical Islamists noted that they expect their Muslim supporters to carry out more attacks in Germany and “other crusader countries.”
In addition, ISIS stated in the brief that its followers should target Jews through acts of murder or arson.