No matter what you call it: Islamic State, Da’esh, ISIS or ISIL, the radical Islamist terror group that began as an Al Qaeda offshoot of a caliphate has become a multi-generation global monster.
Members are marrying and having children who they are raising to become new terrorists in the same murderous traditions they are carrying out.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Friday that by mid-December 2015, 34 terrorist groups from around the world have pledged allegiance to ISIS (Da’esh, as the group is called in the Middle East).
In his report, Ban said that number is only expected to grow in 2016. Da’esh poses “an unprecedented threat,” he said, because of its ability to persuade groups from countries such as Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and the Philippines to join its cause.
“The recent expansion of the ISIL sphere of influence across west and north Africa, the Middle East and south and southeast Asia demonstrates the speed and scale at which the gravity of the threat has evolved in just 18 months,” Ban warned.
Moreover, Da’esh is “the world’s wealthiest terrorist organization,” he said, estimating the group’s income last year – just from oil and oil products, was between $400 to $500 million, despite an embargo.
Cash taken from bank branches in Iraqi provinces under Da’esh control totaled $1 billion, according to the UN mission in Iraq.
Da’esh terror affiliates are present in the Sinai Peninsula — called “Sinai Province” — and Da’esh terror cells exist within Israel as well.