TERRORISMISIS in 2025: The Resurging Threat
The threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to grow as the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2025 has reported that the terror conglomerate has expanded its operations now to 22 countries.
The threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continues to grow as the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2025 has reported that the terror conglomerate has expanded its operations now to 22 countries, causing 1,805 deaths in 2024, with Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo accounting for 71 per cent of its attacks last year.[1] A 2024 UN report estimated that ISIS, despite recent setbacks, still commanded up to 6,000 fighters in Afghanistan, about 3,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, and 2,000 to 3,000 fighters in the West African states of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Niger.[2]
ISIS’ Strikes on U.S. and Russia
With its deadly strikes at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow in 2024, which took 133 lives and left over a hundred injured,[3] and its deadly 2005 New Year Eve terror strikes in Las Vegas and New Orleans that killed 15 people and left 57 injured,[4] ISIS has demonstrated its ability to penetrate and strike inside the US and Russia, two countries with arguably the most powerful security forces in the world.
With 1,805 deaths in 2023 alone, ISIS remains a potent terrorist threat with several European countries reporting that one in five terror suspects held under the age of 18 in the continent were mostly linked to ISIS.[5] Another study showed that out of the 58 suspects linked to 27 ISIS-linked attacks or disrupted plots between October 2023 and August 2024, a total of 38 were aged between 13 and 19 years of age.[6]
In this respect, famous pop singer Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows were cancelled in Vienna in August 2024, after a 19 year old Austrian citizen was arrested for having plotted a terrorist attack at one of her concerts, following his online allegiance to ISIS operatives outside the country.[7]
ISIS Eyeing US, French Withdrawal from Syria, Africa
Meanwhile, writing for the Institute Study of War in February 2025, Brian Carter stated that a prospective US troop withdrawal from Syria this year would “risk reversing hard-earned gains against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)”.[8]
