In its strongest warning, the U.S. Army announced yesterday, Wednesday, that ISIS is trying to “reorganize itself” as the number of its attacks in Syria and Iraq is set to double compared to last year. The U.S. Central Command of the Army stated in a release that “ISIS has claimed 153 attacks in both countries during the first six months of 2024.”

According to a U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, the organization was behind 121 attacks in Syria and Iraq during 2023. The U.S. Central Command said that “the increase in attacks indicates that ISIS is trying to reorganize itself after several years of declining capabilities.”

This comes ten years after the armed group declared the establishment of a “caliphate” over vast areas of Iraq and Syria, as reported by global news agencies.

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At its peak, the group controlled an area equivalent to half the size of the United Kingdom, where it tried to impose its extremist interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, targeting religious minorities and imposing harsh punishments on Muslims it considered “apostates.”

The group also killed thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority, abducted thousands of women and children, many of whom were subjected to sexual abuse and human trafficking.

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Although Iraqi authorities declared victory over ISIS in 2017 and expelled it from areas it controlled in 2014, elements of the extremist group are still able to carry out attacks and set up ambushes from bases located in remote areas within a triangle spanning the three provinces of Kirkuk, Salah ad-Din, and Diyala.

In a report published last January, the United Nations estimated that the extremist group still had “between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters” in Iraq and Syria.

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In May, 17 members of the Syrian regime forces were also killed in an attack carried out by cells affiliated with ISIS in the Syrian Badiya region, according to Syrian media at the time.

Statistics from the Syrian Observatory published in May indicate that the death toll during military operations in the Badiya region has reached 336 since the beginning of 2024, including 24 members of ISIS and 275 of the regime forces and allied militias.