{"id":40803,"date":"2025-12-26T11:51:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T11:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/963media.com\/en\/?p=40803"},"modified":"2025-12-26T11:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T11:51:54","slug":"after-baghouz-how-isis-rebuilt-itself-in-syrias-security-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/963media.com\/en\/26\/12\/2025\/after-baghouz-how-isis-rebuilt-itself-in-syrias-security-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"After Baghouz: How ISIS Rebuilt Itself in Syria\u2019s Security Vacuum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>The fall of Baghouz in 2019 marked the end of ISIS\u2019s territorial control, but not the end of the organisation itself. Rather than collapsing, ISIS entered a new phase of strategic adaptation, reshaping its structure to survive in an environment defined by insecurity, political fragmentation, and prolonged conflict.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, ISIS no longer governs territory, but it remains an active security actor. Estimates indicate that thousands of fighters are still operating in Syria and Iraq, alongside several thousand detainees held in prisons and camps in north-east Syria. These conditions continue to present a serious risk, particularly if instability enables escapes or renewed organisation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Syria, ISIS activity is concentrated in areas suffering from security gaps and weak governance. The group relies on small, mobile cells that carry out limited but disruptive attacks \u2013 including roadside bombs and ambushes targeting security forces and rival armed groups. These operations aim less at territorial control and more at maintaining presence, exhausting opponents, and reinforcing the image of survival.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recent incidents underline this threat. In December, an attack near Palmyra resulted in the killing of American and Syrian personnel, highlighting ISIS\u2019s ability to strike despite sustained military pressure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internationally, ISIS continues to project influence beyond the Middle East. Through online propaganda and ideological messaging, it inspires attacks carried out by individuals or small groups with no direct organisational link. Violent incidents in countries such as Australia illustrate that ISIS\u2019s ideological reach persists, even as its conventional military capabilities decline.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These developments confirm that ISIS has shifted from a territorial organisation to a networked threat \u2013 one that feeds on political disorder, economic hardship, and unresolved conflict. Assessing the group\u2019s danger therefore requires more than counting fighters. It demands an understanding of how ideology, networks, and regional dynamics interact to sustain its presence well beyond 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Central command behind decentralised action<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hassan Abu Hanieh, an expert on Islamist movements at the Politics and Society Institute in Jordan, told <\/span><b>+963<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that ISIS\u2019s leadership is believed to be primarily based in Syria, overseeing the group\u2019s external branches in Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Abu Hanieh, the loss of Baghouz forced ISIS to adapt quickly. While the organisation adopted a decentralised operational model, this did not mean the disappearance of central authority. Strategic decisions remain centralised, while execution is left to local cells.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ISIS, he explains, has shifted from conventional warfare to guerrilla tactics and a war of attrition. Cells enjoy limited autonomy in carrying out attacks, but they do not independently determine targets or strategy. This continued centralisation is evident in the group\u2019s media output, particularly its weekly publication <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Al-Naba<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which issues guidance to fighters across different regions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abu Hanieh also points to the growing risk posed by so-called lone actors. These individuals are not formally part of ISIS\u2019s structure but are influenced by its ideology or driven by frustration with economic and political conditions. He suggests that the December attack near Palmyra may fall into this category.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Syria\u2019s worsening economic situation, the absence of reconstruction, foreign military interventions, and competing regional agendas all contribute to an environment in which extremist ideas can spread. Abu Hanieh estimates that ISIS maintains between 3,000 and 5,000 fighters in Syria, in addition to sleeper cells in urban areas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crucially, he argues that ISIS does not need to rebuild. Its leadership, funding channels, ideological framework, and external networks remain in place. The group\u2019s strength, he concludes, is structural rather than inherent \u2013 shaped by Syria\u2019s unresolved political, social, and economic crises.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Raed also: <a href=\"https:\/\/963media.com\/en\/21\/12\/2025\/operation-hawkeye-strike-retaliation-and-the-us-strategy-against-isis\/#\">Operation \u201cHawkeye Strike\u201d: Retaliation and the US Strategy Against ISIS<\/a><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Coordination, fragmentation, and limits of power<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Talaat Taha, a Cairo-based political analyst, told <\/span><b>+963<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that ISIS cells in Syria may be coordinating with affiliated groups in Iraq. He notes that while Western states such as the United Kingdom have criminalised these organisations and imposed sanctions, the group continues to operate in spaces where state authority is weak.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taha raises questions about how ISIS continues to access weapons and funding, suggesting that its persistence has, at times, coincided with attempts by the United States to reduce its regional presence. Similar patterns, he argues, have appeared previously in both Iraq and Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite this, Taha stresses that ISIS today is weaker than at its peak. Its recruitment capacity has declined, its movement is more restricted, and its territorial ambitions are limited. However, he cautions against viewing the group as either fully weakened or fully resurgent. Its impact depends less on numbers and more on access to resources, weapons, and permissive environments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ISIS, he concludes, is currently focused on consolidation rather than expansion \u2013 maintaining relevance and survival while waiting for shifts in the regional balance that could once again open space for growth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fall of Baghouz in 2019 marked the end of ISIS\u2019s territorial control, but not the end of the organisation itself. Rather than collapsing, ISIS entered a new phase of strategic adaptation, reshaping its structure to survive in an environment defined by insecurity, political fragmentation, and prolonged conflict. Today, ISIS no longer governs territory, but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":40804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"0","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"float","share_float_style":"share-normal","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"g:i a d\/m\/Y","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"5","zoom_button_in_step":"4","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":"Despite losing its territorial \u201ccaliphate\u201d in 2019, ISIS has kept its threat alive amid Syria\u2019s political and security crises."},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[430,19],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[390],"class_list":["post-40803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insights","category-slider"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>After Baghouz: How ISIS Rebuilt Itself in Syria\u2019s Security Vacuum - 963+<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After losing Baghouz in 2019, ISIS shifted to decentralised cells under central command, exploiting Syria\u2019s security vacuum to remain a persistent threat.\" 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