ISIS leader ‘planning fresh wave of attacks’

The leader of ISIS is planning another wave of terror attacks against Britain and other European countries in revenge for the defeats the group has suffered in Iraq and Syria, a leading Iraqi intelligence official has warned. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Caliphate in Iraq and Syria, is said to be organising a number of attacks against Western targets to comfort and boost the morale of jihadi fighters after the defeats he has suffered in Mosul and Raqqa, among others, the Telegraph reports. In an exclusive interview, Lahur Talabany, the head of Kurdish intelligence, says a new generation of Islamist terror groups could emerge in Iraq if the country does not undertake radical political reform. Talabany said there were an estimated 500 British jihadists fighting with ISIS at the height of the caliphate’s influence in Iraq and Syria, but the majority of them had been killed during the US-led coalition’s military campaign to destroy ISIS. As a result, al-Baghdadi is keen to launch a new wave of terrorist attacks against Britain and other Western countries to boost the morale of surviving fighters. Talabany said: “Isil has lost a lot of land in Iraq and Syria, but this is not the end of Isil. “We are going to see a lot more attacks on the West that are designed to boost the morale of the fighters who have suffered heavy losses. They are trying to do attacks that will get them publicity. “The more sophisticated attacks are being organised by the leadership around the Baghdadi camp. “Isil played the media card very well. They used the media to demoralise the government forces in both Iraq and Syria, but they were never as strong as they led the world to believe. “They had lots of land, which they needed to attract foreign fighters. But now they don’t have the land to attract people to join them. “We are very grateful for the help we have received from the coalition forces. “We will need political support as we get the Sunnis back into the government in Baghdad otherwise we will end up with a new set of extremists in the country. “If the Sunnis are brought back into the political system then that will be the end of Isil. But if the opposite happens then we could have new Islamist groups emerging that have a similar agenda as Isil.”