Alwaght- ISIS Takfiri terrorist group remnants are planning to form a new terrorist network after its imminent defeat in Iraq and Syria, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Aleksandr Bortnikov warns.
The terrorists have been “almost defeated while attempting to build their caliphate in Iraq and Syria,” he noted.
Yet, "the leaders of ISIS and other international terrorist groups have defined their global strategic objective as the creation of a new, worldwide terrorist network,” Bortnikov stated at a meeting of security services and law enforcement agencies from Russia and 73 other countries in the Russian city of Krasnodar.
This expansion can be seen through attacks hitting not only war-torn states, such as Iraq and Syria, but also Spain, Turkey, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the UK, he noted.
The terrorists must “demonstrate to their current and potential future sponsors and sympathisers” that they still have the ability to take further action.
Terrorists have been rapidly losing ground in Iraq and Syria over the past months. Now, Bortnikov noted, “militants are purposefully spread out beyond the Middle East, concentrating in unstable regions with the aim of creating new hotspots of tension and armed conflict.”
The most important of these regions was Afghanistan, Bortnikov explained, where ISIS has already got a foothold in certain areas and may try to spread its influence into India, China, Iran and Central Asia.
Additionally, other terrorist strongholds are emerging in Yemen, Africa and Southeast Asia.
Bortnikov also revealed that the terrorists pose a threat not only in the real world, but online as well. Besides spreading propaganda and finding new recruits, they are also forming new “cyber-divisions” which can be deployed to attack key infrastructure. ISIS Terrorist group is facing imminent defeat in Iraq and Syria following concerted efforts by the armies of the two countries and their allies.
