BAGHDAD: Islamic State attacks have increased this year,
particularly in Iraq and Syria as the group responds to substantial
territorial losses, a U.S.-based analysis firm IHS said on Sunday.
There were 891 attacks during the first quarter of 2016 in
neighbours Iraq and Syria, more than in any three-month period since the
militants' sweeping advance in mid-2014, IHS said in a new report.
Those attacks killed 2,150 people, a 44 percent rise over
the previous three months and the highest quarterly toll in nearly a
year.
"The group is resorting more and more to mass-casualty
violence as it comes under heavy pressure from multiple angles," said
Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Centre.
The U.S. military estimates Islamic State's territory in
Iraq has shrunk by about 40 percent from its 2014 peak and 20 percent in
Syria.
Iraq's military routed the militants from the western city of Ramadi
four months ago and then pushed further west towards the Syrian border.
The northern offensive has been slower, with army and Sunni Arab tribal
forces taking only four villages over the past month south of Mosul.
In Syria, government-aligned forces backed by Russian
air power have recaptured territory from Islamic State, including the
ancient city of Palmyra. The group is also under pressure from a
separate U.S.-led air campaign in the north and northeast, where Kurdish
fighters have advanced.
The IHS report also noted a rise in Islamic State attacks in
Libya, where the militants have grown in strength, taking over the
central city of Sirte and attacking oilfields. Analysis showed almost as
many attacks in the first three months of this year as in the preceding
six months.
IHS said Islamic State activity has also spiked around the
northwestern town of Sabratha it described as a key staging ground for
attacks in neighbouring Tunisia.
"High profile, mass casualty attacks are a tried and tested
method of changing the narrative and deflecting attention away from the
problems it is facing," said Henman. "This is done for internal
consumption just as much as external."
(Reporting by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
- Reuters
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