Daesh on Sunday urged its supporters to “exploit” the war in Ukraine to resume terror attacks in Europe. The jihadist group has also vowed to avenge the death of its last leader last February.
The stated aim is to seize the “opportunity” of a “crusader battle” (Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), said Abu Omar al-Muhajir, the terrorist group’s spokesman, in an audio statement broadcast on Telegram on Sunday.
On February 3, US President Joe Biden announced the death of former Daesh leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hachimi al-Qurachi, who blew himself up during a US special forces operation in northwestern Syria, a jihadist-controlled region had.
His death, as well as that of the group’s former spokesman, was confirmed by the jihadist group on March 10.
10,000 active fighters
Abu Hassan al-Hachimi al-Qourachi, the new leader of the radical Sunni organization, the group’s third since its inception, has made few headlines so far.
According to a UN report released last year, Daesh “maintains a largely covert presence in Iraq and Syria and wages an ongoing insurgency on either side of the border between the two countries.”
In those two countries, the jihadist organization would retain “a total of 10,000 active fighters,” according to the same source.