SPECIAL REPORT: THE ISLAMIC STATE THREAT TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA INTO 2022

   Wed, 08 December 2021

Islamic State-linked attacks have continued to decline around the Middle East and North Africa region in 2021. While this is certainly a positive development, the IS threat remains pervasive. Despite declines in the group’s prevalence, the scale of the challenge posed by IS and its violent ideology that underpins it is still immense and the mechanisms by which to address it remain complex or unaddressed. Although it is difficult to assess the group’s manpower and capability, there is evidence that they are re-establishing and rebranding themselves, especially in Iraq and Syria. This threat, however, has not manifested in the same way elsewhere in the region, where security forces maintain their momentum in containing the group.