Wednesday, July 12th., 2017Beleaguered Daesh Releases How-To Manual for Lone Wolf Terrorist Attack
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The
Turkish branch of Daesh has put out an e-book to train amateur radicals
on the basics of terrorist attacks. The 66-page “Lone Wolf’s Handbook”
includes information on subjects such as bomb making, truck attacks,
property destruction and so on according to the Washington Times.
The
manual also contains 174 illustrations and seven charts. Written
in Turkish, it urges readers to conduct terrorist attacks
against European and American cities. It contains detailed instructions
for destroying cars and buildings, setting forest fires, setting highway
traps and other subjects, and was released online via encrypted
channels.
While others such as American white supremacist William Luther
Pierce, Brazilian Marxist Carlos Marighella and fellow Islamic terrorist
group al-Qaeda have put out manuals detailing the how-tos
of counterculture and radical behavior, Daesh's most recent entry in the
genre is particularly comprehensive and user-friendly, targeting an
audience of novices.
The manual does lack some trademarks of Daesh propaganda: it lacks a cover page and was more roughly edited than previous entries. Daesh has gained a reputation for impeccable-quality propaganda, including their own online magazine published in four different languages.
However, even if the organization's ambitions of fielding a military
and creating a government that controls territory are doomed, they may
still prove a thorn in the sides of their many enemies as a more
traditional terrorist group.
Recent incidents like the November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 137, the March 2016 Brussels bombing that killed 35, the Berlin Christmas Market attack in December 2016 that killed 12, and a trio of terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom from March to June 2017 that killed 40 people between them have all demonstrated the effectiveness of lone or small groups of radical operators in wreaking havoc in European cities.
Daesh's online operations have been credited with inspiring terrorist attacks in the past. For instance, they put out a video recommending the driving of vehicles like trucks and SUVs into crowds as a terror strategy in 2016. A couple months later, a radical Islamist rammed a truck into a crowd of people in Nice, killing 87 and injuring 458.
A video also released by Daesh called for "lone
wolves all over the world to stand up and to initiate attacks of any
kind." The speaker in the video, a young teenager, called on the viewers
to read and implement the strategies detailed in the book.
©
REUTERS/ Alkis Konstantinidis
The manual does lack some trademarks of Daesh propaganda: it lacks a cover page and was more roughly edited than previous entries. Daesh has gained a reputation for impeccable-quality propaganda, including their own online magazine published in four different languages.
Daesh's ability to control territory in Iraq
and Syria has been crumbling since the group's 2015 peak. Their Iraqi
capital of Mosul has been completely recaptured by US-backed Iraqi
forces, while Daesh forces in their Syrian capital of Raqqa are
completely surrounded by Syrian Democratic Forces. The territory they
control continues to contract, and the organization's leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi was announced to have been killed in a Russian airstrike
by Russian, Iranian and Daesh sources.
©
REUTERS/ Ahmed Jadallah
Recent incidents like the November 2015 Paris attacks that killed 137, the March 2016 Brussels bombing that killed 35, the Berlin Christmas Market attack in December 2016 that killed 12, and a trio of terrorist attacks in the United Kingdom from March to June 2017 that killed 40 people between them have all demonstrated the effectiveness of lone or small groups of radical operators in wreaking havoc in European cities.
Daesh's online operations have been credited with inspiring terrorist attacks in the past. For instance, they put out a video recommending the driving of vehicles like trucks and SUVs into crowds as a terror strategy in 2016. A couple months later, a radical Islamist rammed a truck into a crowd of people in Nice, killing 87 and injuring 458.
Western leaders warn that Daesh may prove to be
resilient. "The fact that ISIS [Daesh] has been able to absorb this
much damage and yet still somehow continue to resist the coalition,
albeit in weaker form, to this day — and even more impressively continue
to direct, enable, or inspire terrorist attacks around the world —
should be a sobering and instructive demonstration of organizational
resilience," Lt. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, director of strategic
operational planning at the American National Counterterrorism Center,
said in a June interview.