ISIS poised to exploit historic US Iraq exit, terror group 'actively waiting in the gaps,' expert warns
The Islamic State is quietly rebuilding as the United States prepares to complete its withdrawal from Iraq, raising fears the terror group could exploit a security vacuum, a regional security expert warned Sunday.With U.S.forces leaving by Sept.
30 and as Baghdad tries to rein in Iran-backed militias, Iraq could also be entering its most dangerous period since ISIS seized Mosul in 2014, according to counterterrorism expert Dr.Omar Mohammed."ISIS is waiting actively in the gaps, as it historically always has," Mohammed, author and researcher with the George Washington University Program on Extremism, told Fox News Digital.US SERVICE MEMBER KILLED IN IRAQ AS TROOPS RECOVER UNIDENTIFIED REMAINS IN JORDAN: CENTCOMThe Islamic State is quietly rebuilding as the United States prepares to complete its withdrawal from Iraq, regional analysts say.
(History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)"The question is not whether American forces leave Iraq in September; that timetable is set.The question is what leaves with them.""The militias claim the ISIS threat in order to keep their weapons, while ISIS recruits from the grievances that the militias create," Mohammed explained."That is exactly the dynamic that hollowed out Mosul before 2014, when the city was caught between a sectarian security apparatus and the insurgency it fed."After preparing for years, ISIS captured Mosul, about 250 miles north of Baghdad, over a decade ago.
Iraqi security forces collapsed and fled the city.The group built underground networks through assassinations, extortion, intimidation and infiltration before launching its offensive.ISIS seized U.S.-made weapons and hundreds of millions of dollars before leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the group's self-proclaimed caliphate.At the time, Mohammed launched "Mosul Eye," a blog that secretly documented life under ISIS rule, exposing its operations and offering intelligence to U.S.
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