Buckling under protests against cronyism and Iranian imperialism, Iraq’s government faces a new challenge as Christmas approaches: the increasing threat of new ISIS attacks.

While the terrorist group has lost much of its physical caliphate in Iraq and Syria, it retains thousands of capable fighters, tens of thousands of supporters, a logistics network, and continued ambition. And Christmas has long been a favored target of the Salafi-Jihadist death cult. In 2013, the group killed more than 35 Iraqis as they attended Christmas services in Baghdad. In 2016, ISIS carried out a truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12. Similar attacks on western targets were only prevented thanks to effective intelligence operations. Christmas attacks are favored by ISIS because they represent action against infidels (cause), and they concentrate people together (targets).