ISIS resurgence alarms US Coalition Forces: new tactics and recruitment strategies revealed
Shafaq News/ The Islamic State (ISIS) is resurging and posing an escalating threat to US coalition forces in Iraq and Syria. ISIS is strengthening its presence in the North Arabian Desert, also known as the Jordanian steppe, where it is training recruits as suicide bombers targeting allied troops, according to a Wall Street Journal report quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
US soldiers in Syria are struggling to contain this resurgence in areas previously cleared of ISIS, with the group reportedly working to revive its Islamist Caliphate. General Rohilat Afrin, co-commander of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told the Wall Street Journal, "This year has been the worst year since we defeated Islamic State. No matter how much you knock them down, they’ll try to get up again."
In the first half of 2024 alone, ISIS claimed responsibility for 153 attacks in Syria and Iraq, and has been increasing its manpower by recruiting and training children. The group's new tactics involve small, guerrilla-style cells using rifles and booby traps, as opposed to its previous large-scale assaults.
The report indicated that the US-SDF coalition has captured 233 ISIS fighters in 28 operations this year. The US maintains 900 personnel in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq, and has conducted airstrikes and surveillance to support SDF forces. In one successful operation, SDF forces, with US aerial support, detained dozens of ISIS suspects without firing a shot by using model compounds to plan the raid.
Concerns about ISIS’s resurgence have intensified amid discussions of a possible US withdrawal from the region. The semi-official Iranian Tasnim News reported that US forces might withdraw from Iraq, except the Kurdistan region, by September 2025, with a complete withdrawal by September 2026. Brig. Gen. Ali al-Hassan, a spokesman for northeast Syria’s US-allied internal security force, warned, “We’ll see chaos like we’ve never seen before. Any withdrawal will cause the immediate activation of sleeper cells.”
Based on the report, ISIS is also targeting displaced people in Syrian and Iraqi camps for recruitment, including children of ISIS fighters. In the al-Hol camp, children are exposed to ISIS propaganda and are trained as militants when they reach fighting age.
As ISIS continues to evolve and expand, US forces are under pressure to remain vigilant. “Attention has shifted elsewhere,” a US Special Forces officer stated, “But now is not the time to take our eyes off of northeast Syria.”
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