But Arndt von Loringhoven, NATO's assistant secretary general of intelligence for intelligence and security, spoke at a security conference hosted by Israeli college IDC Herzliya said that while the Islamic state loses ground, Al Qaeda is trying to regain its primacy over international militancy, thus foreseeing a potential increase in the risk for the West due to the rivalry of groups.
Von Loringhoven, added that, despite the heavy losses suffered during the fighting, the Islamic State has retained a certain strength of its personnel and has taken steps to reinforce the ranks of the fighters by recruiting new forces among women and children. “The weakening of ISIS-Daesh has provided al Qaeda with the opportunity to try to regain its former status,… while ISIL-Daesh kept the world in suspense with war and terrorist attacks, Al Qaeda quietly rebuilt its global networks and capabilities ”.
Al Qaeda carried out the 11/2011 attacks on the twin towers, resulting in US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. US forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani hideout in XNUMX. Soon after, the Islamic state arose, led by an equally extremist form of Sunni Islam.
The feuds of the Islamic state in Syria and Iraq have been largely dismantled in recent years by the offensives launched by Damascus and Baghdad with the support of various foreign coalitions.
According to Von Loringhoven, NATO has estimated that the flagship force of the Islamic state composed of about 39.000 fighters present in Syria and Iraq has halved between the 18.000 and the 20.000 fighters, most of them missing in the two countries.
The NATO official then highlighted the group's effort in using propaganda to radicalize women and children who have become sources for a new recruitment of militants. "This trend may have led to greater involvement of women and children in the planning and execution of a series of attacks, including in NATO countries."
Von Loringhoven, referring to the arrest in June of a Tunisian suspected of planning an attack in Germany, announced that the militants could increasingly attempt to carry out new attacks using weapons or homemade chemical and / or biological agents using drones. on the market, therefore easily available.