WORLD ROUNDUPPotential ISIS Return Next Year | Spotlight on the Kurdish Question | Cryptocurrency for Terrorists, and more

West Warned of Potential ISIS Return Next Year  (Laura O’Callaghan, The National)
ISIS continues to pose a significant threat almost four years after its last holdouts in Syria were defeated, according to experts. They also warned the terror cell is far from extinct and will seek to bring 10,000 of its fighters from Syrian prisons and detention camps next year. At its strongest point, the terror group controlled a third of Syria and 40 per cent of Iraq, following its rise in mid-2014. But the success of the US coalition in ousting the group from towns and cities, including its capital Raqqa in Syria, meant that by March 2019 its physical caliphate had fallen. Dr Shiraz Maher, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and a member of the war studies department at King’s College London, said such a plot would pose the “single greatest security threat to the West”. “Blink and you’ll miss it and suddenly ISIS will be back,” he told Sky News. There are fears that a possible ground offensive by Turkey in Syria could provide the perfect environment for ISIS to once again take control of vast swathes of territory. Matthew Henman, a terror expert at intelligence firm Janes, told Sky News that ISIS “has maintained a steady tempo of insurgent violence” since being stripped of its land. The Islamic State in Khorasan Province, an affiliate of ISIS, has increased its attacks since the Taliban regained power in summer 2021.

Paris Attack Puts Spotlight on the Kurdish Question  (France24)
The deadly attack on Kurds in Paris last week has highlighted the long plight of the non-Arab ethnic group of between 25 and 35 million people who remain stateless. The Kurds inhabit largely mountainous regions across southeastern Turkey through northern Syria and Iraq to central Iran. They are often described as the world’s largest people without a state. Many have been internally displaced in the Middle East because of decades of bitter conflicts, while others have been forced to flee persecution to the West, especially Western Europe. After three Kurds were shot dead and three others injured on Friday in the 10th district of Paris, home to a large Kurdish population, the community is once again fearful. The shooting has deepened raw wounds, coming less than 10 years after three Kurdish women activists were gunned down in the same area. The community’s anger has