11 September 2001 terrorist attacks The attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda jihadists changed the future of security not just in Washington but in nations on every continent around the world — beginning the global war on terror that continues today.
More than 20 years have passed since 19 hijackers aboard four commercial flights crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon near Washington DC and an empty field in Pennsylvania after passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 thwarted an attack they believed they were planning to attack the US Capitol or the White House.
Under this plan created by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, 2,977 people were killed 23 years ago. The biggest terrorist attack in history and launched the global fight against extremism.
But despite the end of the US war in Afghanistan and the declaration of defeat over Islamist terror groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, experts warn that the threat posed by extremist groups remains serious.
Pedestrians in lower Manhattan watch smoke billow from New York’s World Trade Center on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Amy Sansetta)
Top general in fight against Taliban says Afghanistan has once again become a ‘hotbed of terrorism’
“The threat has evolved,” Bill Roggio, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. “It’s certainly much harder to carry out a 9/11-style attack, but there are much more opportunities for jihadists from both al Qaeda and the Islamic State to carry out individual attacks, as we’ve seen over the last decade and a half.
“Before 9/11, al-Qaeda was operating openly in Afghanistan and at the cellular level in dozens of countries. And Now there are safe havens and battlefields “There are tens of thousands of fighter jets around the world,” he said.
2024 Global Terrorism Index released A February analysis of the impacts of terrorism over the past year by the Institute for Economics and Peace found that deaths from terrorism had increased by 22% since 2012 and “are now at their highest level since 2017.”
In this 1998 file photo, Osama bin Laden speaks to reporters in Khost, Afghanistan, and was made available on Friday, March 19, 2004. A person familiar with developments said on Sunday, May 1, 2011, that bin Laden is dead and the United States has his body. (Mazhar Ali Khan/AP)
Last year’s surge in terrorism-related deaths, which included the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel, was still 23% lower than the global high seen in 2015, though the institute only began releasing the GTI report in 2012, a decade after the global war on terror began.
While attacks by terrorist groups are once again on the rise and terrorist activity is also high in the Middle East with the war between Israel and Hamas, Strong support being given to terrorist groups by Iran With the help of Hezbollah, the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and its subsequent safe haven for al-Qaeda, and ISIS’s continued attacks against coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, the Middle East is no longer the “hub” of terrorist activity.
Syrian Kurdish security forces look forward to the release of former detainees suspected of being members of the Islamic State (IS) group, in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh, September 2, 2024. (Delil Soleiman/AFP via Getty Images)
The GTI report found that, “The epicenter of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa, concentrated primarily in the Sahel region. The region now accounts for nearly half of all terrorism deaths globally.” The report said that terrorism deaths in the Sahel will increase by 38% in 2023 compared to 2022.
Complex security and humanitarian crises, driven by poor regional leadership and severe economic hardship, have created voids in places like Burkina Faso – which alone accounts for nearly a quarter of all terrorism-related deaths globally, with more than 1,900 people killed in 258 incidents last year.
This marks the first time in 2023 that a country other than Afghanistan or Iraq has been listed at the top of the index as the country most affected by terrorism in 2023 since the institute began releasing the GTI report more than a decade ago.
A masked Islamic State soldier holding an ISIS flag in 2015. (History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The Department of State assesses that ISIS-Sahel and al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM are the most active terrorist groups in Burkino Faso, and JNIM has been attributed to the majority of attacks in the country.
However, Burkina Faso has also been ranked globally as one of the countries where attacks have not been attributed to any specific group – a trend mostly seen in regions where ISIS is active.
Charles Lister, director of the Syria and Counterterrorism and Extremism Programs at the Middle East Institute (MEI), explained that ISIS is one of the first terrorist organizations to avoid taking credit for its attacks because it is “a clear attempt to conceal its activities from the international community.”
A member of the Kurdish security forces stands guard in September 2023 as released detainees prepare to leave the Kurdish-run Al-Hol camp, which houses relatives of suspected Islamic State fighters, in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh governorate. (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)
ISIS was declared defeated by Donald Trump in December 2018, but experts are concerned that the terrorist group continues to grow and expand its influence globally.
“We have inflicted, at most … an operational or tactical defeat. We have not inflicted a strategic defeat on the Islamic State,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael Nagata, the former commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) and MEI Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security, said during an event hosted by MEI on Tuesday.
“Our failure to strategically defeat the Islamic State is best evidenced by the fact that we now have ISIS franchises spanning the entire region from the west coast of Africa to South Asia,” he said. “In my experience, no other terrorist group has ever been able to build a global network of that size, sophistication, and be able to use modern technology to conduct terrorist activities.”
ISIS threat growing in Syria and Iraq, US military warns terrorist attacks could double in 2024
An Ivorian soldier provides security upon the arrival of Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi in Togbo on January 22, 2022 at the launch of a massive aid plan for young people in areas bordering Mali and Burkina Faso, where jihadist groups are trying to recruit. (Sia Kambou/AFP)
According to the GTI report, attacks by IS and its affiliates accounted for 14% of all attacks worldwide last year – a figure which is probably much higher in reality.
“(ISIS) has been able to tap into local conflicts and ungoverned spaces in a way that we’ve never seen al Qaeda succeed in,” Lister, a senior fellow at MEI, told reporters this week. “I think that’s a real cause for concern.”
Like other Islamist terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, ISIS’s strategic goal is to consolidate territory in order to establish a caliphate – a system of governance based on strict interpretations of Sharia law.
This undated still frame from a recruitment video for Osama bin Laden’s extremist al-Qaeda network shows terrorists taking part in military training. (Al Rai Al Aam/Feature Story News/Getty Images)
Despite its expansion outside the Middle East, the country most affected by the Islamic State is still Syria, where there are more than 1,000 Islamic State militants. US and coalition forces are fighting continuously Terrorist networks.
Coordinating with allied forces in Iraq and Syria, the United States has conducted nearly 200 operations against ISIS this year alone, the vast majority of them in Iraq.
However, despite the intensification of anti-ISIS operations in Iraq, the Pentagon confirmed this week that it was discussing the issue with Iraqi officials. Complete withdrawal of US forces by September 2025,
Houthi followers burn Israeli and US flags during a tribal gathering on the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen, January 14, 2024. Houthi followers had gathered to protest against US-UK airstrikes on bases in areas under their control. (Mohamed Hamoud/Getty Images)
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There are currently about 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq, working alongside Iraqi security forces and Kurdish security forces to defeat ISIS, as well as about 900 U.S. troops in Syria.
But security experts are deeply concerned the withdrawal could have a negative impact on the mission in Syria — a region where US and coalition forces are already having difficulty countering ISIS efforts, in part due to Iran-backed militias.
“This would have a negative impact on our ability to operate in Syria,” Lister warned. “It would mean we would have to leave Syria, and then we would have a lot of other things to worry about.”
The expert warned that the only way to fight ISIS is to work together with a coalition of countries to collect better intelligence and work against the terrorist group.
But ultimately, Nagata warned that ISIS will continue to exist until countries find a way to address deeper socio-economic and human-rights-based issues.
“The hardest thing about dealing with a terrorist group, especially one as brilliant as the Islamic State, is defeating their ideas, and that’s not something you can do with rifles or grenades or missile strikes,” he said. “We can defeat them strategically until the cows come home, and that won’t solve the problem.”
