Over the past few weeks Islamic State (ISIS) has come under intense pressure from the Iraqi army backed by Iranian-led Shia militias in and around Tikrit. Of late, ISIS has suffered heavy casualties and has seen the territory under its control in Iraq shrink by almost 25%. Despite these setbacks, ISIS has expanded its global footprint over the last year and now has as many as 31 active branches, franchises, affiliates, partner organizations and cells currently operating in: Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, The Philippines, Indonesia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Algeria, and the Indian sub-continent.

This backgrounder will examine ISIS’s key global hubs and affiliates. It will focus on ISIS’s footprint in countries outside its traditional operating theater of Iraq and Syria. It will also explore how ISIS has expanded its global reach through the use of partners/affiliates/supporters and how ISIS is beating out Al-Qaeda to become the ‘premier brand’ in global jihad.

Libya

On April 13, 2015 ISIS-affiliated attackers exploded a bomb outside the gate of the Moroccan embassy in Tripoli, and on April 12 they fired shots at the South Korean embassy in the city, killing two local security guards. These attacks are just the latest in a slew of armed assaults carried out by ISIS affiliates (which include Ansar al-Shariah and The Islamic Youth Shura Council, Islamic State Libya, and the Shura Council of Shabab al-Islam Darnah) in the country. Over the past 18 months ISIS affiliates have carried out multiple high-profile attacks on foreign, commercial, and diplomatic targets in Libya. These attacks include an armed assault on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli that killed five foreigners (one American, one French citizen, and three people from Tajikistan), the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, attacks on the embassies of Egypt and Algeria in Tripoli and various attacks on 11 oil production sites including the Ghani oilfield where ISIS-linked operatives killed at least nine staff. ISIS affiliate-led attacks have been very effective in limiting Libya’s ability to produce oil. According to TIME, “Libya’s overall oil production dropped to a reported 325,000 barrels per day in January 2015, down from 1.7 million per day before the 2011 uprising.”

In addition to the group’s ability carry out attacks against high-value targets, ISIS’s Libyan affiliates have also demonstrated their ability to seize and hold territory in the country. By late 2014, ISIS in Libya was in full control of the city of Derna (population 100,000). Derna is located near the Egyptian border and is only 200 miles from the shores of the European Union. Derna has since become the group’s command and control hub in Libya and some have called it the Raqqa of North Africa (Raqqa is ISIS’s command and control hub and headquarters in Syria). According to sources in Libya, as of late 2014 approximately 800 ISIS-affiliated fighters were based in and around Derna and approximately 500 in Sirte. It was also reported that these numbers have since grown as a result of Libyan jihadists fighting in Syria returning home and due to ex-Gaddafi military members joining these groups.