Islamic State’s next move could be underground criminal networks
After months of fierce ground war, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory last month over the Islamic State in Mosul. Analysts on the ground, however, said the fight is far from over. Already, a new version of the Islamic State is emerging out of the ashes of the Mosul offensive and is quickly adapting to a […]Aisha Ahmad writes for The Washington Post:
After months of fierce ground war, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory last month over the Islamic State in Mosul. Analysts on the ground, however, said the fight is far from over. Already, a new version of the Islamic State is emerging out of the ashes of the Mosul offensive and is quickly adapting to a new form of war. As the caliphate crumbles, the jihad is moving into the criminal underworld.
We have seen this pattern before. In Afghanistan, after the Taliban government lost power in 2002, its fighters took to the mountains and leaned on the heroin industry to finance their insurgency. In Somalia, after Ethiopian-led forces overthrew the Islamic Courts Union government in 2007, al-Shabab extremists tapped the illicit charcoal and smuggling industries to fund its campaign against the African Union. In Mali, after losing control over the northern Azawad region in 2012, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) cashed in on its ties to the lucrative West African cocaine trafficking networks to pay for its war against French-led U.N. peacekeeping forces.
