TERRORISMU.S. Must Not Overlook Al-Qaida, Islamic State: Officials
For months the gaze of U.S. counterterrorism officials has been shifting, moving from scrutiny of foreign terrorist organizations to individuals in the United States seeking out ideologies to justify their use of violence. A top U.S. counterterrorism official cautions that jihadi groups, such as al-Qaida and Islamic State, cannot be forgotten.
For months the gaze of U.S. counterterrorism officials has been shifting, moving from scrutiny of foreign terrorist organizations to individuals in the United States seeking out ideologies to justify their use of violence.
The most likely attackers, according to the government’s most recent terrorism advisory, are lone actors or small groups motivated by a wide array of beliefs and personal grievances who pose a “persistent and lethal threat to the homeland.”
But while attacks like the May 2022 mass shooting that killed 10 Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, continue to grab headlines and the attention of officials, the top U.S. counterterrorism official cautions that jihadi groups, such as al-Qaida and Islamic State, cannot be forgotten.
“We have still got to be really vigilant about the threat posed by those organizations that are based overseas that want to conduct attacks against Americans here in the homeland,” National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid said Tuesday at an event hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“The al-Qaida- and ISIS-inspired threat is still there,” she said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group, which is also known as IS or Daesh.
Years of counterterrorism pressure by the U.S. and its partners have taken a toll on the two groups, whittling away each group’s core leaders.
Islamic State
IS has been especially hard hit, losing two emirs over the past 12 months — Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi during a raid by U.S. special forces in northwest Syria last February and Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi during an independent operation by the Free Syrian Army this past October.
In the months between those two deaths, the U.S. and its partner forces in Syria and Iraq, as well as allies like Turkey, killed or captured another 10 senior IS leaders.
But the victories against IS appear to have done little to dampen overall enthusiasm for the group and its affiliates.
“ISIS is actually a very dynamic group that continues to be led from this core in Iraq and Syria, continues to have interest in not just their sort of territorial integrity but in the notoriety and the brand expansion and attacks against the West,” Abizaid said.
