Militant group ISIS is displaying a “voracious appetite” for conventional military conquests, an expansion into countries such as Bangladesh, according to NBC News.
The group, which reportedly carried out terror attacks in Europe and the Middle East in recent months, is said to have shown “a reliance” on new techniques like targeted assassinations.
NBC said the ISIS magazine Dabiq’s various articles boast about plans to expand operations in Bangladesh, a South Asian Muslim majority country which has been described as a strategic US ally.
US and allied counterterrorism officials are scrutinising the publication for indications of what ISIS might do next, said NBC News in an article “ISIS magazine details attacks, expansion into new countries”.
Conrad Crane, a historian at the Army War College, was quoted to have said the new developments add to the already worrisome trajectory of ISIS as a growing military power. “Their expanded capabilities greatly increase the difficulty in dealing with the problem set that they present. They are not just a regional problem anymore,” said Crane, a retired army lieutenant colonel who co-authored the US military’s Iraq war counter-insurgency field manual.
The report said the latest issue of Dabiq that came out only on Wednesday provided new clues about how ISIS has evolved into a sophisticated military operation that has won what the magazine calls a “string of victories.”
The ISIS magazine provided the details of slaying of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella, 50, who was shot while jogging in Bangladesh.
NBC News said in an article called “A Selection of Military Operations by the Islamic State,” the magazine says an ISIS “security cell” targeted and killed Tavella, “following him on one of the streets of the city of Dhaka and shooting him with a silencer.”
Just five days later, it added, ISIS members struck again, killing Kunio Hoshi in the Bangladeshi city of Rangpur because he was a citizen of Japan, a country that has supported US anti-ISIS actions, NBC News said.
The article described other terrorist strikes in Bangladesh, which ISIS calls by its historical name of Bengal, including one that killed and wounded nearly 100 people at a historic Shiite mosque, according to the NBC News.
It mentioned that in a separate article, ISIS described Bangladesh as a new battleground as it continues its strategic expansion.
Bangladesh has been grappling for more than a year with attacks on journalists, bloggers and others who have written critically about Islam, NBC News said.
Counterterrorism officials were quoted to have said that the terror group’s move into the country is of concern because it might suggest it is also moving into neighbouring India.
“If indeed ISIS is taking root in Bangladesh, it bodes ill for the future of a very fragile democracy, and it is one more major Muslim country in danger of radicalisation,” Sumit Ganguly, director of the Centre on American and Global Security, was quoted to have said.
Source: Prothom-Alo
