Even as ISIS fought to maintain its shrinking territory two years ago, it continued to attack targets beyond its footprint.
In the first 3 months of 2017, there were ISIS attacks in Syria.
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The Islamic State lost its last foothold in Syria on Saturday after years of fighting. But the terrorist group remains a serious, violent threat.

Many of its top leaders are still alive. And it continues to carry out attacks, including one in January that killed 15 people, including four Americans, outside a shawarma restaurant in the city of Manbij, Syria. After a period of relative calm early last year, the United States-led coalition has ramped up strikes against ISIS in Syria since August.

Strikes against ISIS by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria

In April, Trump said:

“I want to bring our troops back home. It’s time. We were very successful against ISIS.”

1,000 strikes

per month

500

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

As of Jan. 26

In April, Trump said:

Strikes against ISIS by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria

“I want to bring our troops back home. It’s time. We were very successful against ISIS.”

1,000 strikes

per month

500

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

As of Jan. 26

Strikes against ISIS by the U.S.-led

coalition in Syria

In April, Trump said:

“I want to bring our troops back home. It’s time. We were very successful against ISIS.”

1,000 strikes

per month

500

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

As of Jan. 26

Strikes against ISIS by the U.S.-led

coalition in Syria

In April,

Trump said:

“I want to bring our troops back home. It’s time. We were very successful against ISIS.”

1,000 strikes

per month

500

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Note: 2019 data is as of Jan. 26

Strikes against ISIS by the

U.S.-led coalition in Syria

500

1,000 strikes

per month

2015

2016

2017

In April, Trump said:

“I want to bring our troops back home. It’s time. We were very successful against ISIS.”

2018

2019

Note: 2019 data is as of Jan. 26

By nearly every metric, the Islamic State is at its lowest point in the almost five years since it declared its caliphate. The group controls no territory in Iraq and Syria, attacks are down and the number of foreign fighters it continues to recruit is a fraction of what it was at its height. But analysts who have studied ISIS since its rise in Iraq more than 15 years ago point out that the group is far more powerful today than it was when American forces pulled out of Iraq in 2011.

ISIS has adapted to its losses, returning to the guerilla tactics it used in the past, like targeted assassinations, bombings, ambushes and raids. The group still has tens of thousands of fighters in Iraq and Syria, according to United States Army General Joseph Votel. Territory that has been liberated remains insecure, as sleeper cells take root. Since last summer the group has carried out at least 250 attacks outside its controlled territories in Syria.

ISIS attacks outside of its controlled territory

(Since July 2018)

Aleppo

Circles are

ISIS attacks

Raqqah

Deir al-Zour

Mediterranean

Sea

SYRIA

Homs

Abu Kamal

IRAQ

Damascus

Fatalities

50

10

1

No fatalities

50 miles

Dera’a

ISIS attacks outside of its controlled territory

(Since July 2018)

Aleppo

Circles are

ISIS attacks

Raqqah

Deir al-Zour

SYRIA

Homs

Abu Kamal

IRAQ

Damascus

Fatalities

50

10

1

No fatalities

50 miles

ISIS attacks outside of its controlled territory

(Since July 2018)

Circles are

ISIS attacks

Aleppo

Raqqah

Deir al-Zour

SYRIA

Homs

Abu Kamal

IRAQ

Damascus

Fatalities

50

10

1

No fatalities

50 miles

ISIS attacks outside of

its controlled territory

Aleppo

Raqqah

Deir al-Zour

SYRIA

Homs

Abu Kamal

Circles are

ISIS attacks

since July 2018

IRAQ

Damascus

Fatalities from ISIS attacks

50

10

1

No fatalities

50 miles

The shift toward hit-and-run tactics, which rely on methodical surveillance and clandestine networks to deliver targeted attacks like the one in Manbij, has allowed the group to remain effective in Syria despite its loss of territory.

“They realized you don’t have to mount 6,000 attacks per month. You just have to kill the right 50 people each month,” said Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The group’s acolytes continue to carry out attacks beyond the Middle East, claiming responsibility for a Roman Catholic church bombing in the Philippines on Jan. 27 that killed at least 20 people. Since 2017, ISIS and its followers have carried out attacks in at least 25 countries.

Attacks directed by the Islamic State since 2017

U.K.

RUSSIA

AFGHANISTAN

SYRIA

CHINA

IRAQ

LIBYA

INDIA

PAKISTAN

NIGER

BANGLADESH

Nov. 24, 2017

YEMEN

PHILIPPINES

An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed more than 300 people.

Jan. 27, 2019

Two bombs exploded at a cathedral, killing more than 20 people.

INDONESIA

AUSTRALIA

Attacks directed by Islamic State since 2017

RUSSIA

U.K.

AFGHANISTAN

SYRIA

CHINA

IRAQ

LIBYA

PAKISTAN

NIGER

YEMEN

BANGLADESH

Nov. 24, 2017

PHILIPPINES

An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed more than 300 people.

Jan. 27, 2019

Two bombs exploded at a cathedral, killing more than 20 people.

INDONESIA

AUSTRALIA

Attacks directed by Islamic State since 2017

RUSSIA

U.K.

AFGHANISTAN

CHINA

SYRIA

IRAQ

LIBYA

PAKISTAN

NIGER

YEMEN

BANGLADESH

Nov. 24, 2017

PHILIPPINES

An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed more than 300 people.

Jan. 27, 2019

Two bombs exploded at a cathedral, killing more than 20 people.

INDONESIA

AUSTRALIA

Attacks directed by Islamic State since 2017

RUSSIA

U.K.

AFGHANISTAN

CHINA

SYRIA

IRAQ

LIBYA

PAKISTAN

NIGER

YEMEN

BANGLADESH

Nov. 24, 2017

PHILIPPINES

An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed more than 300 people.

Jan. 27, 2019

Two bombs exploded at a cathedral, killing more than 20 people.

INDONESIA

AUSTRALIA

Attacks directed by Islamic State

since 2017

RUSSIA

U.K.

AFGHANISTAN

SYRIA

IRAQ

PHILIPPINES

NIGER

PAKISTAN

BANGLADESH

Jan. 27, 2019

Nov. 24, 2017

An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed more than 300 people.

Two bombs exploded at a cathedral, killing more than 20 people.

Attacks directed by Islamic State since 2017

RUSSIA

U.K.

AFGHANISTAN

SYRIA

IRAQ

NIGER

PHILIPPINES

PAKISTAN

BANGLADESH

Nov. 24, 2017

Jan. 27, 2019

An attack on a mosque in Egypt killed more than 300 people.

Two bombs exploded at a cathedral, killing more than 20 people.