On 20 August 2025, the Security Council held a thematic debate on the “Twenty-first report of the Secretary-General on the threat posed by ISIS to international peace and security and the range of United Nations efforts in support of Member States in countering the threat.”
Assistant Secretary-General Natalia Gherman, Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) briefed the Council together with Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov of the Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Elisa de Anda Madrazo.
The UN Secretary-General’s latest report says that the threat posed by ISIS remains volatile. Africa continues to be significantly affected, currently experiencing the highest intensity of ISIS activity globally. In the Middle East, ISIS is still active in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, working to restore its operational capacity and renewing efforts to destabilize local authorities. In Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan represents one of the most serious threats to Central Asia and beyond.
According to the report, ISIS activity in the Middle East was constrained by sustained counter-terrorism pressure, notably in Iraq and in the Syrian desert region. The situation in the Syrian Arab Republic remained fragile. Since the fall of the Government of Bashar Al-Assad and the takeover led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, ISIS has been intent on destabilizing the interim authorities and exploiting existing vulnerabilities. ISIS members seized stockpiles of heavy weaponry (such as missiles, anti-tank systems and mortars) held by the previous Government, and over 500 detainees affiliated with ISIS were released from detention facilities following the change in power. Prison break incidents also occurred, during which ISIS detainees escaped.
ISIS maintained up to 3,000 fighters across Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. In the latter, the group expanded covertly into populated urban areas near Damascus, operating through small mobile cells. The group also sought to incite sectarian tensions and ran multilingual campaigns aimed at discrediting the interim authorities. It attempted to recruit some dissatisfied local fighters, foreign terrorist fighters and former regime soldiers. ISIS carried out over 90 attacks across the Syrian Arab Republic, mostly targeting the Syrian Democratic Forces in the north-east of the country. On 22 June, an attack against a church in Damascus caused over 80 casualties. A preliminary investigation conducted by the interim authorities attributed the attack to ISIS, but the group has not claimed responsibility for it.
Fighter affiliations in the Syrian Arab Republic remain fluid and frequently shift. ISIS is expected to continue projecting an external threat from the Syrian Arab Republic, where some of its key leaders remained based, if divisions in the country allow a permissive space from which they can plan and execute attacks. In Iraq, ISIS was working to rebuild its networks and restore operational capacity in the desert region and along the border with the Syrian Arab Republic.
Source: ANF News
