The Islamic State appears to be moving away from lone wolf attacks and preparing for mass casualty attacks to gain media attention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN.
Despite U.S. coalition airstrikes, the Islamic State’s forces are still between 20,000 and 30,000 strong, according to intelligence estimates.
“I think they’re taking a lot of the new recruits that don’t have time to train, who have not been brought up in their systems, and they’re using them to create the type of mass casualty which produces the media attention, which is exactly what they want, that shows they’re still powerful,” said CNN military analyst Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling.
The shift in the Islamic State’s strategy may also be aimed at stealing support from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a group that has traditionally focused on large casualty attacks, like Sept. 11, 2001.
U.S. airstrikes have apparently not stemmed the appeal of the Islamic State caliphate, as the flow of foreign fighters continues through Syria’s porous border with Iraq unabated.
The Pentagon admitted this week it has lost up to half of the Syrian rebels it trained, after the rebels were either captured or deserted following an attack by the al Qaeda affiliated terrorist group al-Nusra.
