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It Was The Most Violent And Bloodiest Ramadan Yet Due To Islamic State

By Jessica Dafoe
Published on: 03:21 PST, Jul 8, 2016

Ramadan of 2016 has been a month of devastation and bloodshed. It is now being reported that this year’s month devoted to Ramadan has been the bloodiest on record, and it all comes at the hands of the Islamic State. The yearly period focused on daytime fasting and prayer was overshadowed by terrorist acts, including a massive suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed nearly 300 people, an attack on the Istanbul airport that took 45 lives, a hostage situation in Bangladesh that killed 22 individuals, an attack on Saudi Arabian security officials, a bombing in Afghanistan that killed 64 and a horrific shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 people.

USA Today notes the words of Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a spokesperson at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“There’s no question, post 9/11, there’s not been a Ramadan with more terrorist attacks across the globe than this one. “

William McCants, author of the ISIS Apocalypse, spoke on the devastation that has occurred over the course of the month, noting that “[f]or the global jihad, attacks abroad far from the front lines, this has to be some sort of record.”

As USA Today notes, the majority of attacks were the actions of, or were inspired by, the Islamic State. The group launched a wave of terror around the world to demonstrate that it remains a unified force that will not back down, following the loss of territory in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

USA Today recalls the territory the Islamic State once occupied and has now lost.

“The Islamic State, which swept across large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, lost city after city in Iraq this year, the latest being Fallujah. Fighting the militant group are the U.S.-led air campaign, the Iraqi military, Shiite militias trained and organized by Iran, U.S.-backed Kurdish militia, plus Russian and Syrian forces that occasionally strike Islamic State targets while fighting an anti-government rebellion.”

Since the Islamic State has suffered setbacks, spokesman for the terrorist group, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani noted in a statement that they must prepare once more for a future “in the desert without cities and without territory.”

During the period of the years 2006 to 2012, ISIL’s predecessor, al-Qaeda, was nearly wiped out by the U.S. military and were expected to live in dire conditions in the middle of the desert. The political unrest in Iraq and Syria allowed the Islamic State to rise up once more and send out this most recent wave of terror.

McCants spoke of the patterns followed by the Islamic State and tactics used to build their following while instilling fear in their enemy.

“Attacks abroad are meant to galvanize their followers and demonstrate they have ability to reach out and touch their enemy.”

Acts of terror by the Islamic State impact a number of countries regularly. These include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. Although Egypt is fairly unaffected, the nation has suffered a huge hit in regards to tourism, much like Tunisia.

Attacks that have occurred in other nations, such as the shooting in Orlando, are considered to be loosely tied to the Islamic State, with advisement to commit the acts coming from leaders of the state, as CNN shared. Another example of this includes the recent events when an explosive thrown into a club in Puchong, the work of a local network under direction from an external operations chief named Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi.

Gartenstein-Ross notes that “This is a show of force, a signal to regional networks that ISIS is the best game in town. [The Islamic State] likes doing new things that other terrorist groups haven’t done.”

[Photo by Muhannad Fala’ah /Getty Images]

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