In 2014, ISIS proclaimed a caliphate from Mosul. On September 18, 2026, suspected ISIS militants blew up a power pylon in Iraq's western desert, and security forces reached the site eight hours later. Twelve days on, Washington formally ended the mission that, it says, defeated ISIS in Iraq.
Sixty-six years after independence, Mali's capital needs an army escort to receive its fuel, its defence minister has been killed in a jihadist offensive, and an Al Qaeda affiliate dictates how women must dress on the buses. The junta, which seized power in 2020 to restore security, says the situation is under control.
Since June, Abuja has reportedly been observing a secret truce with Boko Haram, sealed after an alleged five-billion-naira payment that the government denies making. In Adamawa, gunmen described as Boko Haram fighters spent seven hours killing twelve villagers and abducting a ten-year-old girl. Soldiers arrived twenty hours later. Discretion, at least, was assured.
Three Syrian security officers were killed on September 17 in Daraa, cradle of the 2011 uprising, during a raid on an ISIS cell. The forces hunting the jihadists answer to a president who once led Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch and had a $10 million American bounty on his head. Syria's war on terror has an unusual résumé.
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