Editorial of the “World”. The US special forces operation that resulted in the death of the leader of the Islamic State (IS) organization, Abu Ibrahim Al-Hachimi Al-Qourachi, Thursday, February 3, in northern Syria, is good news. It confirms the United States’ commitment not to lower its guard in its fight against jihadist terrorism, despite its withdrawal from the Middle East. The disastrous departure of American troops from Kabul in August 2021 could have led people to believe that Washington, all in its confrontation with Beijing and Moscow, believed that the page on jihadism had been turned as a priority threat.
The blow dealt to the high hierarchy of the EI does not mean the end of the terrorist organization. Abou Ibrahim Al-Hachimi Al-Qourachi, a 43-year-old Iraqi Turkmen, will be replaced, as he replaced Abou Bakr Al-Baghdadi, also killed in northern Syria, in October 2019.
Since the fall of the last bastion of its “caliphate” in early 2019, in Baghouz, Syria, IS has demonstrated its ability to transform itself into a decentralized guerrilla, both in its Syrian-Iraqi cradle and at the global level. In Syria, IS fighters have just carried out their most spectacular and largest operation since 2019, attacking the Ghwayran prison, in Hassaké, where Kurdish forces, allied with the West, are detaining several thousand jihadists of all nationalities. Result of this attack: 495 dead, including 374 detainees and assailants, 77 employees and guards of the prison, 40 soldiers of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and 4 civilians.
It is not known if the leader of the EI, Amir Mohammed Said Abdel Rahman Al-Mawla of his real name, played a role in the coordination of this major operation. The man, who has never appeared in public, unlike his predecessor, has never released a photo, nor an audio or video message.
push for civil war
This did not prevent the IS “label” from prospering and gaining new territories from Asia to Africa. In Afghanistan, where its subsidiary, the Islamic State in Khorassan, embodies a radical line against the power of the Taliban. In Africa especially, where radical armed groups rally to the black flag, a source of notoriety and recruitment. During the “mandate” of Abou Ibrahim Al-Hachimi Al-Qourachi, we saw the EI spread in the Sahel, in particular in Burkina Faso and Mali, but also in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. Wherever conflicts persist and where the state is absent or synonymous with injustice and violence, the threat exists.
In Europe itself, individuals regularly take action without needing to claim allegiance to IS or its leaders, attacking poorly protected but symbolic targets with sometimes rudimentary means. They didn’t need to be trained or even indoctrinated. They integrated the modes of action and the objectives of the organization, without even having ever been members: to provoke reprisals, to explode society, to push for civil war, to force Muslims to choose their side.
In France, the assassination of Samuel Paty in October 2020 is the best example of this strategy and the considerable damage it causes in the political and social field. The “war on terrorism” cannot be waged by special forces alone in Syria or the Sahel. It is also part of a constant effort by our society not to fall into the trap set by the followers of Abu Ibrahim Al-Hachimi Al-Qourachi.