ISIS semi-independent terror cells loyal only to radical ideology are plotting strikes around world

Osama Bin Laden has been dead for years and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s “caliphate” in the Middle East has crumbled, but the global jihadist threat continues to boil as extremists retreat underground to plot terror strikes around the world.

Some 20,000 to 30,000 fighters loyal to Baghdadi’s Islamic State movement, also known as ISIS or ISIL, remain active in Syria and Iraq despite no longer holding significant territory there, according to a new U.N. report that also claims affiliates of Bin Laden’s original al Qaeda network are still strong from Africa to Asia.

The report circulated by experts to the U.N. Security Council this week highlighted the staying power of such al Qaeda’s affiliates as al-Shabaab in Somalia, but stressed that extremist followers of the relatively newer ISIS movement pose a rising threat globally.

Fears of so-called loan wolf, ISIS-inspired terrorism soared anew in Europe on Tuesday after a 29-year old man rammed pedestrians and cyclists on the streets surrounding British Parliament in London, before crashing the vehicle into a security barrier.

While authorities had not pinned the incident to ISIS as of Tuesday night, it bore similar characteristics of previous attacks claimed by the terror group where loan wolf assailants used a car or truck to mow down victims

Source: Washington Times