AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Between 20,000 and 30,000 ISIS terrorists remain in Iraq and Syria despite the militant group's defeat and a halt in the flow of foreigners joining its ranks, according to a UN report released Monday.
The report by UN sanctions monitors estimates that between 3,000 and 4,000 ISIS terrorists were based in Libya while some of the key operatives in the terrorist group were being relocated to Afghanistan.
Member-states told the monitors that the total ISIS membership in Iraq and Syria was "between 20,000 and 30,000 individuals, roughly equally distributed between the two countries."
"Among these is still a significant component of the many thousands of active foreign terrorist fighters," said the report.
The sanctions monitoring team submits independent reports every six months to the Security Council on the ISIS and Al-Qaeda, which are on the UN terrorist blacklist.
ISIS once controlled large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, but last year it was driven out of Mosul and Raqa -- the twin seats of power of the terrorist group.
By January 2018, ISIS was confined to small pockets of territory in Syria, although the report said the group "showed greater resilience" in eastern Syria.
ISIS "is still able to mount attacks inside Syrian territory. It does not fully control any territory in Iraq, but it remains active through sleeper cells" of agents hiding out in the desert and elsewhere, said the report.
The flow of foreigners leaving ISIS "remains lower than expected" and no other arena has emerged as a favorite destination for foreign militants, although "significant numbers have made their way to Afghanistan", said the report.
There are an estimated 3,500-4,500 ISIS terrorists in Afghanistan and those numbers are increasing, according to the report.
The flow of foreign terrorists toward ISIS "has essentially come to a halt," it added.
ISIS commands only 250 to 500 members in Yemen, compared to between 6,000 and 7,000 militants for Al-Qaeda.
In the Sahel, the ISIS in the Greater Sahara is active mostly at the border between Mali and Niger but has less of a foothold than the Al-Qaeda-linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JMIN).
The Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab dominates in Somalia but the report said that ISIS "has the strategic intent to expand to central and southern Somalia". Some Somali ISIS terrorists may choose to relocate to Puntland, said the report.
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14 August 2018 - 14:18
News ID: 905407
Between 20,000 and 30,000 ISIS terrorists remain in Iraq and Syria despite the militant group's defeat and a halt in the flow of foreigners joining its ranks, according to a UN report released Monday.
