The ISIS jayvee team now has affiliated groups in 17 countries.
ISIS released footage this week of Islamic State police patrolling streets in Sirte, Libya.
ISIS is now firmly in control of Sirte, Libya.
Russia Today reported:
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has released footage of their security forces on the streets of Sirte in Libya – the so-called ‘Islamic Police’.
The terrorist group is trying to take over more Libyan territories, as the West eyes a possible intervention for the second time in five years.The footage is reportedly aimed at showing off IS control over Sirte.
The terror group now holds territories far beyond Syria and Iraq, something raising concern across the world.
“In Iraq and Syria, ISIL has suffered significant setbacks. It doesn’t mean that they don’t remain a threat. They do. <…> We’ve seen them try to get a toehold in North Africa,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said during the latest press briefing.
His fears are echoed by other US officials.
Earlier, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter compared Islamic State’s presence in the Middle East with a “growing tumor.”
“Even as we work to defeat ISIL in Syria and Iraq, where its parent tumor has grown, we also recognize ISIL has metastasized elsewhere” Carter said.
The UN has voiced its concerns about the rapid spread of the terrorist group in its latest report on the IS threat in Libya.
“While currently concentrated in its stronghold in Sirte, ISIL could seek local alliances to expand its territorial control, also entailing the risk of motivating additional foreign terrorist fighters to join the group in Libya,” the report read.