Islamic State adopts different strategy to target "unexpected" areas
Cairo – North-Press Agency
Mohamed Abu Zaid
An Egyptian observatory specializing in monitoring the activity of the Islamic State (ISIS) and extremist organizations revealed a new strategy adopted by the organization to target unexpected areas.
North-Press obtained a copy of the report issued by the Observatory for Monitoring Takfiri Fatwas and Extremist Ideologies of the Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah (an official Egyptian observatory) which discussed ISIS’s trend of escalating its operations in various new areas that were previously not on their radar, including the Maldives, where the group uses lone-wolf operatives affiliated with ISIS.
Despite the small size of the islands, they are, according to the text of the observatory’s report, considered fertile ground for terrorist groups due to the proliferation of members supporting al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group.
In 2013, with the escalation of violence in Syria, between 50 and 100 people traveled to Syria and joined Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), in addition to the Free Syrian Army.
Reports indicated that the Maldives was among four countries in South Asia from which members were likely to join ISIS, and the number of those who traveled from the Maldives to Syria and Iraq was estimated at about 200 in 2015.
Other reports indicated that this number has risen to 500 people, which is a large number considering that the Maldivian population does not exceed 400,000 people, according to the observatory's report.
Khaled Zafarani, researcher in the radical Islamic groups' affairs said: "ISIS has been on the receiving end of critical strikes in both Syria and Iraq that have caused it to lose its empire. Since then it has begun to try to find alternative enclaves through which it works to rebuild itself again."
He continued: "The organization's arms and sleeper cells are used through these attempts in order to establish a presence and try to show that the organization remains."
He adds that all these attempts reveal the organization's level of weakness, as it depends on fast operations with what is known as the lone wolf strategy to create confusion and try to achieve the greatest amount of private gain.
According to al-Zafarani, the group aims to carry out these operations wherever its militants and sleeper cells exist, through swift and individual operation. It is particularly active in the continent of Africa, especially in the west, and it tries to use its arms throughout the world. "However, these operations do not mean that the organization can return to what it once was, and they do not hide the fact that they have been defeated and are critically weak".
Recently, the organization's media accounts published a new issue in which a group of its members talk about targeting tourists in the Maldives.
Last February, the organization launched an attack in which three tourists were killed.
The organization claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in which Maldivian government boats were targeted, and it declared that the operation was carried out using incendiary bombs.