IS assaults on track to double in Iraq and Syria, US defence chiefs say

US central command has said the so-called Islamic State group (IS) is trying to “reconstitute”, with the number of attacks in Syria and Iraq on track to double those of the previous year.

IS has claimed 153 attacks in both countries in the first six months of 2024, US defence officials said.

The group is believed to have been behind 121 attacks in Syria and Iraq in 2023.

“The increase in attacks indicates ISIS (another term for IS) is attempting to reconstitute following several years of decreased capability,” central command said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are holding more than 10,000 captured IS fighters in around two dozen detention facilities — including 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them. The SDF captured the last sliver of land in Syria from IS in March 2019.

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria said a life sentence will be reduced to 15 years in jail, while those detainees serving life sentences who have incurable diseases will be set free, as will those who have reached the age of 75. It said the amnesty would not include IS officials and members who fought against the SDF, nor those who carried out attacks with explosives that killed people.

The announcement comes just after the 10-year mark since the militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria.

At its peak, the group ruled an area half the size of the UK where it attempted to enforce its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on religious minority groups and harsh punishment of Muslims deemed to be apostates.

Militants also killed thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority and kidnapped thousands of women and children, many of whom were subjected to sexual abuse and human trafficking.

A coalition of more than 80 countries, led by the United States, was formed to fight IS, which lost its hold on the territory it controlled in Iraq and 2017 and in Syria in 2019, although sleeper cells remain in both countries and abroad.

Iraqi officials say that they can keep the IS threat under control with their own forces and have entered into talks with the US aimed at winding down the mission of the American-led military coalition in Iraq.

The talks come at a time of increased domestic tensions over the US military presence.

From October to February, an umbrella group of Iran-backed militias calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq launched regular drone attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria, which they said was in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in the ongoing war in Gaza and were aimed at forcing American forces to withdraw from Iraq.

Those attacks largely halted after three US soldiers were killed in a strike on a base in Jordan, near the Syrian border in late January, prompting retaliatory strikes in Iraq.

On Tuesday, two Iraqi militia officials said they had launched a new drone attack targeting the Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq.

It was unclear whether the attack had hit its target. US officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.