Between 20,000 and 30,000 Islamic State (IS) militants remain in Syria and Iraq despite the group’s recent losses, according to a United Nations report.
The report says that while many fighters, planners and commanders have been killed, some IS members continue to be fully engaged militarily.
The UN report says IS still controls small pockets of territory in the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zour, where it has been able to extract and sell some oil, and to mount attacks, including across the border with Iraq.
Otherwise the report says IS maintains “significant” affiliates in Afghanistan, Libya, South-East Asia and West Africa.
The rival jihadist group, al-Qaeda, meanwhile retains a stronger presence in areas such as Somalia and Yemen.
The report also notes that there has been a fall in the number of terrorist attacks in Europe since late 2017, but warns that this drop could be temporary as “the underlying drivers of terrorism are all present and perhaps more acute than ever”.
