The radical organization Islamic State (IS), which once imposed a reign of terror on millions of people in Syria and Iraq, is involved in the van attack on a crowd in New Orleansin which 15 people were killed and around 30 were injured, according to Reuters.

The suspect, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen from Texas who once served in Afghanistan, was carrying an Islamic State flag during the attack.

US President Joe Biden said the FBI told him that hours before the attack, Jabbar had posted videos on social media that showed he was inspired by Islamic State.

Reuters presented in its analysis data on the organization, which is considered more violent and extremist than al-Qaeda.

Recent business

The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for the attack on a military base in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region a day earlier, the group said on its Telegram channel.

In its statement, Islamic State said the attack was carried out by 12 fighters and two ambushed vehicles, adding that around 22 soldiers of the Puntland forces were killed and dozens more were wounded.

Although it was largely crushed by a US-led coalition several years ago, IS has carried out some significant attacks while trying to regroup.

These include an attack on a Russian concert venue in March 2024 that killed at least 143 people, and two explosions in the Iranian city of Kerman in January that killed nearly 100 people.

It also claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a mosque in Oman last year that killed at least nine people.

In addition to its bloody operations in the Middle East, the Islamic State has also inspired attacks by individuals in the West.

In August 2024, authorities reported that a 19-year-old Austrian man suspected of masterminding a planned attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State leader.

History

At the height of its power from 2014 to 2017, the IS “caliphate” dominated a wide swath of Syria and Iraq, inflicting death and torture on opponents of its radical Islam. Its fighters have repeatedly defeated the armies of the two countries and carried out or inspired attacks in dozens of cities around the world.

Then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in 2019 by US special forces in northwestern Syria, rose from obscurity to lead the ultra-hardline group and declared himself the “caliph” of all Muslims.

The caliphate collapsed in Iraq, where it once had a base just a 30-minute drive from Baghdad, and in Syria, following a sustained military campaign by a US-led coalition.

The new leader, known by the pseudonym Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, remains in hiding.

New tactics in the Middle East

IS has changed tactics following the collapse of its forces and a series of other setbacks in the Middle East.

From where it was once based in the Syrian city of Raqqa and the Iraqi city of Mosul, where it sought to rule as a central government, the group fled to the interior of the two fractured countries.

Its fighters are scattered in autonomous cores, its leadership is secretive, and its overall size is difficult to estimate. The United Nations estimates the strength of IS at 10,000 people in its interior.

All the main foreign fighters left Iraq for countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Pakistan. Most have joined the Islamic State’s Khorasan (ISIS-K) offshoot, named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

It operates along Iran’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Sanaullah Ghafari, the 29-year-old leader of IS’s Afghan branch, has overseen its transformation into one of the most feared branches of the global Islamist network, capable of operations far from its bases on the Afghan border.

Africa

The Islamic State – often called ISIS, ISIL or even Daesh – has also made its mark in parts of Africa.

In Uganda, fighters from the IS-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels carried out a series of attacks, including a massacre at a boarding school, the killing of a honeymooning couple and a raid on a village where they were killed at least three people.

The group, which began as an insurgency in Uganda, has largely shifted its operations to neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has carried out multiple attacks.

Several other groups have declared allegiance to IS in West Africa and across the Sahel. Its offshoots control large swaths of rural Mali, Niger and northern Burkina Faso and North Africa.

In January 2023, the US military carried out an operation that killed a senior IS leader in northern Somalia. The UN fears militant groups could take advantage of political instability in Sudan, which is plagued by a civil war.

Total strength

The US National Counterterrorism Center said the threat posed by IS and another militant group, al-Qaeda, “is at a low point with the suppression of the most dangerous elements.”

But it still warns that half of IS affiliates are now active in insurgencies across Africa and “may be poised for further expansion”.

It also said the group had lost three general leaders and at least 13 other senior operatives in Iraq and Syria since early 2022 “contributing to the loss of expertise and a reduction in ISIS attacks in the Middle East.”