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What will follow the year of ISIS’ Resurrection?

New Orleans attack and Syria's rebellion add to worries of ISIS' Global Activity in 2025

Police checkpoints on and around Bourbon Street, after a vehicle plowed into New Year crowds at a tourist district local authorities said in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States on January 1, 2025. (Photo by Patt Little/Anadolu via Getty Images)

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — Two utterly different events, in two very different parts of the world, have raised fresh concerns about a return to strength for the Islamic State terror group: the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans which killed 14 people and wounded 35 more, and which was clearly inspired by the Islamic State; and a power vacuum in Syria in the wake of the ousting of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad from power last month, which some experts believe may allow ISIS – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – to find new safe havens and gain new momentum. 

Taken together, these events have raised concerns about the growing threat from ISIS — and what may follow what longtime terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman called 2024 the “Year of ISIS’ resurgence.” More broadly, the 2023 Hamas attacks against Israel and the war in Gaza that followed have mobilized terrorist groups and inspired new recruits. As former senior FBI official Jill Sanborn said, “The terrorists are swimming in the chaos that the world is in right now.” Against this backdrop, The Cipher Brief spoke with several experts about the specter of a looming major terrorist attack. They warned that the world may see an ISIS resurgence, made more daunting by the rise of lone-wolf operations, as the New Orleans attack appeared to be.

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