The Islamic
State is kaput. Unfortunately, not all its murderous members are.
It irked me
to see hundreds of ISIS combatants being driven out of Raqqa by a convoy of
trucks under a deal whereby they would be allowed to leave quietly rather than
fighting it out and being killed, as they should have been. Many of those
escapees will have headed for Afghanistan, Libya or Yemen to where ISIS has
metastasised. Making headway in those places is proving to be quite a challenge
for them as everyone, even al-Qaeda, has it in for them. But the assertion that
ISIS cannot survive without territory under its control, first made in The Atlantic in 2014, are founded on wishful thinking – if
anything, ISIS is gaining strength in Afghanistan, and doing so fast despite
being at loggerheads with the Taliban and just about every other band of
jihadist thugs as well as government forces.
