Why Daesh is still not a spent force despite facing terminal decline in Iraq
IRBIL, KURDISTAN: Having once controlled roughly a third of the country at the height of its power, including several major cities and oilfields, there are now growing signs that what remains of the Daesh terrorist organization in Iraq is in terminal decline.
Unable to attract new recruits to shore up its dwindling numbers, nor able to mount significant offensive operations, the group that had in 2014 proclaimed its own “caliphate” today looks like a spent force — in Iraq at least.
![Members of the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service cheer as they carry upside-down the black flag of Daesh, with the destroyed Al-Nuri mosque seen in the background, in the Old City of Mosul on July 2, 2017. (AFP)](https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2023/03/22/3737396-115215620.jpeg)