Anthony Lloyd
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
Well, you've got to remember that although IS was... decisively defeated in 2009, largely by the Kurdish-led SDF, obviously backed by American special forces and air power. Now, since then, IS has continued, but as a far more dispersed organisation in the deserts of eastern Syria. However, there's significant evidence over the past year that the number of attacks involving IS have multiplied.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
And at various stages since being defeated, they have managed to mount quite big operations, not least the operation to try and free most of the male ISIS detainees from Hasakah prison, which failed. But it shows that they can regroup. There are still quite a few foreign fighters in those deserts.
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
And yeah, you've got to remember that's 56,000 women and children from ISIS-affiliated families in those camps and 9,000 ISIS male members in about 20 different prisons controlled by the Kurds. Now, if they all got free or were set free or released somehow, that would be a dramatic coupler to Islamic State's force in the region. We've also seen since Assad's downfall,
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
a fairly sharp resurgence in ISIS-related attacks. You've seen attacks on the SDF in Hasakah, and you've seen, I think, the murders documented of 54 Assad soldiers who were taken prisoner by Islamic State and killed in the area east of Homs in the last few days. Islamic State...
Global News Podcast
The secret police's grip on Syria under Assad
in previous guises, particularly in Iraq, have been absolutely put to the wall militarily, defeated, scattered, dispersed. They have a huge propensity for being able to bounce back if they're allowed to. And with all the unknowns in Syria at the moment, it will be of real concern, not imagined concern, but real concern that Islamic State could regroup in a significant way.