The Islamic State’s propaganda apparatus is significantly slowing down in the wake of multiple battlefield victories against the terrorist group by U.S. backed forces in Iraq and Syria, Senior Research Fellow Charlie Winter at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation noted Wednesday.
The terror group only produced one-third the amount of propaganda it did two years earlier when it enjoyed safe havens in multiple cities across Iraq and Syria. U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces declared victory over ISIS’s capital of Raqqa Tuesday, following months of losses for the terrorist group in Iraq.
2. #IS’s productivity has collapsed. In September ’17, it produced a third as much propaganda as it did in August ’15. pic.twitter.com/RUIQWG12SR
— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) October 18, 2017
Battlefield and personnel losses have also led to the dormancy of several previously important ISIS media outlets that amplified the group’s message. Winter’s graphic demonstrates how near total the loss in propaganda distribution has occurred for the terrorist group.
1. #IS’s media machine is contracting. A large proportion of the propaganda apparatus is now almost totally dormant. pic.twitter.com/yCPibA7SlI
— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) October 18, 2017
Winter also noted that the group’s propaganda is much more focused on ongoing warfare rather than depicting life in the caliphate as an Islamic “utopia.”
3. #IS’s utopian brand has taken a real battering. The caliphate story now revolves almost entirely around depictions of warfare. pic.twitter.com/BTTV8NBKMd
— Charlie Winter (@charliewinter) October 18, 2017
ISIS still, however, maintains thousands of militants in Iraq and Syria operating largely out of the middle Euphrates River Valley in Syria, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Bagdadi is thought to be hiding by U.S. military commanders. The group also maintains active affiliates in Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, the Philippines, and tribal alliances elsewhere which can carry out operations long after the defeat of its core group in Iraq and Syria.
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