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ISIS Claims 3,665 Attacks Worldwide Over the Past Year

ISIS issued an infographic to mark the end of the Islamic year, which concluded at the end of August, claiming 3,665 attacks worldwide throughout the Islamic year 1440.

The full-page “Harvest of the Soldiers” graphic, published in the terror group’s weekly al-Naba newsletter, was released in Arabic and English.

Of the total number of attacks, the terror group claimed the most in Iraq — 1,458 — and the second-most in the other half of its onetime declared caliphate, Syria, at 1,145 attacks. Afghanistan was third with 356 attacks, followed by the Sinai with 228 attacks, West Africa with 191, Somalia with 80 and Yemen with 76. The remaining 100 attacks were divided among locales ranging from France (1) and Australia (1) to Sri Lanka (9), Libya (1) and Pakistan (15). East Asia accounted for 39 claimed attacks.

ISIS tallied 15,845 killed or injured in the attacks, not counting the terrorists. Iraq accounted for the most claimed casualties, followed by Syria, Afghanistan, West Africa and Sri Lanka, where a series of coordinated Easter bombings struck three churches, three hotels and two housing complexes, killing 259 people and injuring hundreds more.

The terror group broke down their attacks by method: 1,622 explosive devices, 736 “assaults and clashes,” 393 assassinations, 294 “sniper operations,” 250 “shelling operations,” 121 ambushes, 95 “istishhadi [suicide bombers] and inghismasi [attackers who risk death in an operation with overwhelming odds],” 60 “attacks repulsed,” 51 “wide scale attacks,” and 43 stationary vehicle bombs.

ISIS claimed 1,723 vehicles destroyed or disabled as well as the destruction of 267 houses and farms and 184 bases and barracks.

Long promoting the use of arson — both of occupied structures and of tinder-dry wildlands — as a cheap terror tactic that requires little skill but can inflict immense fear and harm, ISIS claimed in May the terror group was behind a series of wildfires in Iraq and Syria.

In an issue of al-Naba, ISIS said the targets were “apostates” whose “hearts have long been burned” and vowed the blazes are “just the beginning.”

ISIS also emphasized the economic impact of the fires, noting “many agricultural lands have been destroyed” and “tons of crops,” including wheat and barley, went up in flames in the jihadists’ “harvest of another kind.”

In the al-Naba article, “Roll Up Your Sleeves and Begin the Harvest — May Allah Bless What You Reap,” ISIS reminded “soldiers of the caliphate” that they “have before you millions of acres… their plantations, fields and homes, as well as their economic foundation” to burn.

ISIS Claims More Than 1,800 Attacks in First Half of 2019

ISIS Claims 3,665 Attacks Worldwide Over the Past Year Homeland Security Today
Bridget Johnson
Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. A veteran journalist whose news articles and analyses have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe, Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor and a foreign policy writer at The Hill. Previously she was an editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and syndicated nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. Bridget is a terrorism analyst and security consultant with a specialty in online open-source extremist propaganda, incitement, recruitment, and training. She hosts and presents in Homeland Security Today law enforcement training webinars studying a range of counterterrorism topics including conspiracy theory extremism, complex coordinated attacks, critical infrastructure attacks, arson terrorism, drone and venue threats, antisemitism and white supremacists, anti-government extremism, and WMD threats. She is a Senior Risk Analyst for Gate 15 and a private investigator. Bridget is an NPR on-air contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, New York Observer, National Review Online, Politico, New York Daily News, The Jerusalem Post, The Hill, Washington Times, RealClearWorld and more, and has myriad television and radio credits including Al-Jazeera, BBC and SiriusXM.
Bridget Johnson
Bridget Johnson
Bridget Johnson is the Managing Editor for Homeland Security Today. A veteran journalist whose news articles and analyses have run in dozens of news outlets across the globe, Bridget first came to Washington to be online editor and a foreign policy writer at The Hill. Previously she was an editorial board member at the Rocky Mountain News and syndicated nation/world news columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. Bridget is a terrorism analyst and security consultant with a specialty in online open-source extremist propaganda, incitement, recruitment, and training. She hosts and presents in Homeland Security Today law enforcement training webinars studying a range of counterterrorism topics including conspiracy theory extremism, complex coordinated attacks, critical infrastructure attacks, arson terrorism, drone and venue threats, antisemitism and white supremacists, anti-government extremism, and WMD threats. She is a Senior Risk Analyst for Gate 15 and a private investigator. Bridget is an NPR on-air contributor and has contributed to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, New York Observer, National Review Online, Politico, New York Daily News, The Jerusalem Post, The Hill, Washington Times, RealClearWorld and more, and has myriad television and radio credits including Al-Jazeera, BBC and SiriusXM.

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