Small Wars Journal

Islamic State Losing Ground, And Its Leaders Know It

Thu, 07/28/2016 - 5:55am

Islamic State Losing Ground, And Its Leaders Know It by Matthew Bell, USA Today (Global Post)

Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, the official spokesman for the Islamic State, has come pretty close to acknowledging that the territory controlled by the group is slipping away.

In a statement released in May, Adnani warned the enemies of the Islamic State, “O America! Listen, O Crusaders! Listen, O Jews!”

“You will never be victorious. You will be defeated,” he said. “Do you, O America, consider defeat to be the loss of a city or the loss of land?”

“And would we be defeated and you be victorious if you were to take Mosul or Sirte or Raqqa or even take all the cities and we were to return to our initial condition? Certainly not!” Adnani added.

Back in 2014, after its fighters shocked the world by seizing vast territories in Iraq and Syria, the messengers from the Islamic State made a pitch to young Muslims that went something like this: Come join the caliphate of the prophecy! Be part of history by helping to build the Islamic state described in the Quran.

ISIS was never just about state-building, says Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “That being said, as they lose ground, they need to show that they’re still strong,” he says.

The terrorism campaign launched during this past holy month of Ramadan is a case in point…

Read on.