International terror attacks by the Islamic State will likely continue despite efforts by military and counterterrorism officials to rein in the group.
“We think that transnational terrorist attacks, in the near term, will probably remain steady. The group has been able to build a robust and redundant apparatus for conducting transnational terrorist attacks,” said a U.S. defense official, reports WTOP.
The official said the group will instead take a decentralized approach to attacks, using online propaganda to recruit jihadists.
“They have a lot of people in place already that are sympathizers around the world. … We think they will be able to continue to be able to produce at least a constant level of propaganda, which underpins a lot of the ideology in Europe and elsewhere,” the official said.
And while the amount of propaganda is decreasing, “the percentage of propaganda that talks about attacks and external attacks has actually increased,” a defense official told WTOP.
The terror group is also no longer attempting to inspire jihadists to come to the caliphate, but is urging them to partake in lone wolf attacks, particularly in the U.S. and Western Europe.