{"id":35178,"date":"2018-08-14T03:08:56","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T03:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/08\/14\/un-report-up-to-30000-islamic-state-members-in-iraq-syria\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T06:46:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T06:46:43","slug":"un-report-up-to-30000-islamic-state-members-in-iraq-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2018\/08\/14\/un-report-up-to-30000-islamic-state-members-in-iraq-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"UN report: Up to 30,000 Islamic State members in Iraq, Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UNITED NATIONS \u2014 The Islamic State extremist group has up to 30,000 members roughly equally distributed between Syria and Iraq and its global network poses a rising threat \u2014 as does al-Qaida, which is much stronger in places, a United Nations report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report by U.N. experts circulated Monday said that despite the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and most of Syria<\/a>, it is likely that a reduced \u201ccovert version\u201d of the militant group\u2019s \u201ccore\u201d will survive in both countries, with significant affiliated supporters in Afghanistan<\/a>, Libya, Southeast Asia and West Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experts said al-Qaida\u2019s global network also \u201ccontinues to show resilience,\u201d with its affiliates and allies much stronger than ISIS in some spots, including Somalia, Yemen, South Asia and Africa\u2019s Sahel region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al-Qaida’s leaders in Iran “have grown more prominent” and have been working with the extremist group’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, “projecting his authority more effectively than he could previously” including on events in Syria, the experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report to the Security Council by experts monitoring sanctions against ISIS and al-Qaida said the estimate of the current total ISIS membership in Iraq and Syria came from governments it did not identify. The estimate of between 20,000 and 30,000 members includes \u201ca significant component of the many thousands of active foreign terrorist fighters,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many ISIS fighters, planners and commanders have been killed in fighting, and many other fighters and supporters have left the immediate conflict zone, the experts said many still remain in the two countries \u2014 some engaged militarily \u201cand others hiding out in sympathetic communities and urban areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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TOPSHOT – A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of the Islamic State (IS) group in a tunnel that was reportedly used as a training centre by the jihadists, on March 1, 2017, in the village of Albu Sayf, on the southern outskirts of Mosul.\nIraqi forces launched a major push on February 19 to recapture the west of Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group, retaking the airport and then advancing north. \/ AFP \/ AHMAD AL-RUBAYE (Photo credit should read AHMAD AL-RUBAYE\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

ISIS fighters swept into Iraq in the summer of 2014, taking control of nearly a third of the country. At the height of the group\u2019s power its self-proclaimed caliphate stretched from the edges of Aleppo in Syria to just north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its physical caliphate largely destroyed, the Islamic State movement is transforming from a “proto-state” to a covert “terrorist” network, “a process that is most advanced in Iraq” because it still controls pockets in Syria, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experts said the discipline imposed by ISIS remains intact and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi<\/a> \u201cremains in authority\u201d despite reports that he was injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is just more delegated than before, by necessity, to the wider network outside the conflict zone,” the experts said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flow of foreign fighters to ISIS in Syria and Iraq has come to a halt, they said, but \u201cthe reverse flow, although slower than expected, remains a serious challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t