The head of Iraqi intelligence warns of a resurgent ISIS threat, due to a sharp …

🇮🇶The head of Iraqi intelligence warns of a resurgent ISIS threat, due to a sharp increase in the number of militants in Syria over the past year.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Hamid al-Shatir stated that according to Baghdad’s assessment, the number of ISIS militants in neighboring Syria has risen from approximately 2,000 to 10,000 in just over a year.

“This certainly poses a danger to Iraq, because ISIS – whether in Syria, Iraq, or anywhere else in the world – is a single organization, and it will undoubtedly try to re-establish itself in the country to carry out attacks,” he said.

In northeastern Syria, during fights between government forces and Kurds last week, chaos broke out in prisons where thousands of ISIS members were held, and the militants managed to escape into the desert, although many were soon arrested again.

Al-Shatir stated that among the new ISIS militants are people previously associated with Syria’s new leader Shar’a, who was previously the head of an Al-Qaeda branch. Tensions increased after their arrests by government forces.

Al-Shatir said that his statistics also include defectors from other militant groups, such as Jabhat al-Nusra and Ansar al-Sunna, who have joined ISIS, but do not include extremists who remain loyal to these groups. He added that the group has also managed to recruit a large number of Arab tribes, especially in Sunni Muslim areas, which until recently were controlled by Kurdish forces.