ISIS Has Not Been Defeated. It’s Alive and Well in Southern Syria. By Sarah Hunaidi - Foreign Policy
While Washington celebrates victory, the Islamic State is regrouping, and the Assad regime is letting it happen.
The world has been celebrating the Islamic State’s defeat since the final battle of Baghouz on March 23. In February, President Donald Trump celebrated the United States’ alleged victory claiming that the group had been “100 percent” defeated. The United States and Britain have meanwhile moved on to debate stripping the citizenship of their nationals who joined the Islamic State. But contrary to Trump’s declaration, the terrorist group has not been vanquished, and it is currently regrouping near my hometown, Suwayda, in southern Syria—an area it has long terrorized while the government of Bashar al-Assad stood by in silent complicity…