In the last week, The Islamic State killed almost 300 people in Turkey, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, with suicide vests, auto bombs, and guns.
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Now that ISIS has also struck the birthplace of Islam in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis too must shift focus from combatting Iranian allies in Yemen to a full-throated campaign against a group that kills Sunni and Shia Muslims indiscriminately. Iraqi forces collapsed in the face of an ISIS offensive in northern and western Iraq, after they used their Syrian territory as a launchpad. ISIS has also lost significant financial assets and population under its control. “In their mind, they see this as making their enemies pay a price for attacking their territory”. Numerous bombers themselves appeared to have been organized and trained by ISIS or directly in touch with ISIS headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
On June 12, A gunman opened fire inside a crowded gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing at least 49 people in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.
On July 3, a suicide truck bombing in a bustling Baghdad shopping district killed at least 175 people in one of the deadliest attacks in 13 years of war and insurgency.
Prior to Monday’s attack at a security post in Madinah, in which four guards were killed, a blast struck near a Shiite mosque in Saudi Arabia’s eastern town of Qatif, while earlier in the day, a suicide bomber died after detonating a device near the United States consulate in the of Jeddah.
“Three bomb attack in 24hrs in the holiest place for Muslims”, wrote one Twitter user. It carried out a coordinated string of attacks in the second holiest city of Muslim Medina, eastern city of Qatif and near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah. Twenty foreigners-including nine Italians-and two policemen had their throats slit after being held hostage in the restaurant for nearly twelve hours by a group linked to ISIS. Islamic State (IS) has since claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The bombings prove the Islamic State is ready to act and has many operatives willing to target even other Sunni Muslims.
Turkey jailed 17 suspects on Tuesday, mostly foreigners, over last week’s suicide bombing at Istanbul’s main airport, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as the work of Islamic State militants from the ex-Soviet Union.
A Republican Missouri candidate for governor is raising money for his campaign by selling fake “ISIS hunting permits”, scaring local Muslims who say the stickers perpetuate anti-Islam sentiment.
The group’s strategy and success comes in its sudden, swift and above all symbolic attacks, created to shock and awe – a tactic ISIL learned from former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the Iraq invasion. A few days before the strike in Istanbul, the city of Fallujah, just 50 kilometers from the capital of Baghdad, finally fell, after two years in ISIS captivity, to the combined forces of the Iraqi army, USA special forces and air power, and Shia militias backed by Iran. The Saudi news agency reported that two policemen were slightly injured and that they were taken to the hospital. The Iraqi army is now gearing up to take the northern city of Mosul.
Elsewhere, ISIS has recently struck in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and, for the first time, Malaysia. These military successes gave the impression that ISIS was seriously weakening, losing crucial territory and large numbers of fighters.
Several foreign fighters who joined ISIS in Syria have returned to their home countries in Europe to either plot or carry out deadly attacks.
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They believe it is an opportune moment to double down on their millenarian war against civilisation and therefore launch more attacks than normal. “The public anger towards government corruption and incompetence is likely to spill over into renewed public demonstrations demanding radical reforms or the dismissal of the current government”, Younis told this analyst. In many parts of the country, it is unable to provide basic services, and it is doubtful it will be able to rebuild cities and schools and hospitals quickly, in order to get life back on track and allow millions of refugees to return. Two illegal immigrants from Tunisia, who were ISIS followers, stabbed a 26-year-old transgender man in Brussels the day before the Orlando attack.
