A delicate year due to the jihadist threat
Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 perpetrated by al-Qaeda, terrorism has once again become a critical variable for the security and defence of countries. Neither the CIA nor the FBI saw it coming, although it was a young Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, who called his US counterpart, George Walker Bush, to say that his intelligence sources were expecting an attack in the United States and that he wanted to make it clear that Russia had nothing to do with it, if it happened. And it did: it left more than 3,000 people dead.
Threat from ISIS and al-Qaeda
At that time, the biggest terrorist threat was al-Qaeda, and today ISIS is the biggest terrorist threat besides al-Qaeda. For this reason, the United States formed a Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and provided funding to countries such as Iraq and Syria to strengthen their security and halt the advance of the jihadists.
The US State Department has been leading this approach against ISIS to halt its advance: in 2022, the Coalition welcomed Benin as its 85th member and the 13th member from sub-Saharan Africa.
According to information from the US agency, despite major successes in the fight against terrorism, terrorist groups remained resilient and determined to attack.
"ISIS is waging a large-scale campaign of terrorism across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. While the death of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in February marked an important milestone against the terrorist group, ISIS remained capable of carrying out large-scale attacks," according to the agency.
In 2022, ISIS maintained a significant underground operational structure and conducted terrorist operations in Iraq and Syria: "An estimated 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 1,800 Iraqis and 2,000 ISIS fighters from outside Syria and Iraq also remained in detention facilities controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces. In addition, 18,000 Syrians, 26,000 Iraqis and approximately 10,000 nationals from more than 60 countries remain in the al-Hol and Roj displacement camps in northeastern Syria."
And then there is the dizzying expansion ISIS is having in West Africa, also coordinating asymmetric attacks and growing in numbers.
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda has also continued to expand, creating a global network to attack US targets in both Africa and the Middle East.
"Even in Afghanistan. While the Taliban are committed to preventing terrorist groups from using Afghanistan to carry out attacks against the United States and its allies, their ability to prevent elements of al-Qaeda, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and ISIS-K from mounting external operations is very limited," according to the US State Department.
On the subject
According to Antony Blinken, Iran remains the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, facilitating a wide range of terrorist and other illicit activities around the world.
"Iran has planned several attacks with the United States, and regionally, Iran has supported acts of terrorism in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen through proxies and associated groups such as Hezbollah and the al-Ashtar Brigades. Globally, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and the Ministry of Intelligence and Security remained the principal Iranian actors involved in supporting terrorist recruitment, financing, and plotting in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America," according to the US State Department.
The UN says that last year, approximately 23,000 people lost their lives in various terrorist attacks in various parts of the world and that the figure at the end of 2023 will be 35% higher.
And 2024 could be a year of multiple attacks in connection with Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which has already left, in preliminary figures, more than 20,000 Palestinians dead from daily bombings.
In the US, FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned on numerous occasions about the heightened terrorist threat level, telling Congress that "we assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration unlike anything we have seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago".
Europeans are also worried: the traffic light is red and the terrorists' aim is for Paris to fall; the jihadists have been targeting it for some time. The new year to come could be a string of attacks that will leave us with pain and sadness.