{"id":56705,"date":"2019-10-28T19:53:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T19:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/28\/islamic-state-still-poses-a-threat-after-al-baghdadis-death\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T11:52:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T11:52:50","slug":"islamic-state-still-poses-a-threat-after-al-baghdadis-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/28\/islamic-state-still-poses-a-threat-after-al-baghdadis-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamic State still poses a threat after al-Baghdadi\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 Eliminating the Islamic State group\u2019s elusive leader gives President Donald Trump a new argument for leaving Syria, but the U.S. military campaign against the extremists is far from finished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi <\/a>by U.S. forces leaves the Islamic State without an obvious leader, a major setback <\/a>for an organization that in March was forced by American troops and Kurdish forces out<\/a> of the last portion of its self-declared \u201ccaliphate,\u201d which once spanned a swath of Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the militant group, which arose from the remnants of al-Qaida in Iraq after that group\u2019s defeat by U.S.-led forces in 2008, has ambitions to regenerate again. And it remains a dangerous threat in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe bottom line is: This puts the enemy on its heels, but the ideology \u2014 and this sounds so cliched \u2014 it is not dead,\u201d said Chris Costa, a former senior director for counterterrorism for the National Security Council in the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key to the Islamic States is its \u201ckill where you are\u201d ethos, encouraging a far-flung network of followers, including those in the United States, to commit violence however and wherever they can. That jihadist message is likely to live on, even with the death of al-Baghdadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means U.S. forces, perhaps in reduced numbers, will continue hunting and attacking key Islamic State targets, even as Trump says he\u2019s committed to a 2016 campaign pledge to bring them home and end \u201cendless wars\u201d started under his predecessors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump earlier this month went from declaring a near-complete withdrawal of U.S. forces <\/a>from Syria to deciding that some, perhaps several hundred, must stay to keep eastern Syria\u2019s oil fields from falling back into the hands of the Islamic State. Trump also agreed to keep about 150 U.S. troops at a base in southern Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\t