Despite territorial losses to its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq, ISIS remains committed to spreading its ideological message, harsh rule, and terrorist tactics to new outposts.
“This phenomenon is probably because committing terrorist operations abroad is embedded in the organization’s DNA,” wrote counterterrorist analyst Aki Peritz in The Cipher Brief last week. “In this respect, the Islamic State’s global ambitions are similar to their largest competitor for the worldwide jihad, al Qaeda,” he continued.
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