The war in Ukraine has inevitably dominated Western media over the past year, but the so-called ‘war on terror’ is far from over, however much the NATO leadership wishes otherwise. Conflicts continue in northern Iraq and Syria, and there has been an upsurge in violence on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.
At least as significant as this is Islamist-fuelled violence from the western Sahel right across equatorial Africa to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Uganda and Somalia. With the French withdrawing military support from several of its former colonies, the United States has become increasingly involved in the region, though this is complicated by the presence of Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, who are capitalising on anti-European sentiments and Western policy missteps.
In Iraq and Syria, US involvement takes the form of air strikes, the most recent being targeted on Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, an ISIS leader who, according to US Central Command, “was responsible for planning ISIS attacks into Europe and developed the leadership structure for ISIS”. His death earlier this week came just over a month after US and local forces staged a helicopter raid that killed another ISIS leader, Hamza al-Homsi.
