Daesh funding terror attacks despite blows, Al-Qaeda remains resilient: UN report

NEW YORK: Daesh is still capable of sending funds to supporters and motivating attacks in Europe and elsewhere despite military pressure and falling revenue — and Al-Qaeda remains resilient especially in West Africa, East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, UN experts said in a report circulated Thursday.
The experts monitoring sanctions against the extremist groups said competition between Daesh and Al-Qaeda continues, but “shifting alliances” among fighters “and cooperation on the tactical level in several regions also allow them to move between various groups.”
The report said the extremist threat continues to rise in Southeast Asia, where Daesh wants to establish a foothold. It said recent events in the southern Philippines, where the city of Marawi has been under siege by Daesh-linked militants for more than two months, is evidence of this.
The experts said in the report to the UN Security Council that “the core” of Daesh is adapting to military pressure in Iraq and Syria by delegating decision-making responsibility to local commanders and switching to encrypted communications.
Several member states highlighted “the increasingly creative use of drones” by Daesh, primarily in Iraq and Syria. They said the group is developing the capability to design and construct larger drones which will increasingly enable it “to weaponize the drones, thereby increasing its ability to strike at a distance,” according to the report.
It said Daesh “continues to send funds to its affiliates worldwide” and is likely to do so as long as the group has the means. Daesh leaders have also sent money to places where the group doesn’t have affiliates in an attempt to prepare for its eventual defeat in Iraq and Syria, according to an unidentified UN member state quoted in the report.
The experts quoted several member states as saying Daesh fighters returning home generally fall into three categories: Those disenchanted with the extremist group “and terrorism as an ideology” who can potentially be deradicalized and reintegrated into society; a much smaller group of high-risk individuals who return with the aim of conducting “terror attacks”; and individuals who have cut ties with Daesh but “remain radicalized and are ready to join another terrorist group should the opportunity arise.”