ISIS adapts to pandemic operations
If in Iraq the COVID-19 pandemic forced the government army to curtail operations, ISIS militants are not going to do this.
Nikolai Plotnikov, head of the Center for Scientific and Analytical Information at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and professor at the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University, writes about this on the pages of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“In the latest issue of their propaganda magazine Al-Naba, the jihadists called on their members to intensify attacks on “crusader countries” while they are distracted by the coronavirus,” the author notes.
In many ways, the Islamic State is well suited to operate during a pandemic, he said.
“His units operate autonomously, live in remote shelters and underground shelters, use caches of food and water, regularly replenished by accomplices from among local residents, and use solar panels as sources of electricity,” the political scientist writes.
“Avoiding the risk of contracting the coronavirus, the jihadists, as directed by their leaders, began taking personal hygiene measures (washing hands, covering coughs and sneezes) and observing social distancing long before the measures announced by the Iraqi government. At the same time, instructions for militants on how to act in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were drawn up taking into account world experience,” Plotnikov points out.
ISIS Adapts to Operations During the Pandemic