How ISIS Fights?: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt.

• Author: Uyan, Cenkay

By Omar Ashour

Edinburgh University Press, 2021, 244 pages, $109.99, ISBN: 9781474438223

Jihadism, terrorism, radicalization, and extremism have been on the agenda of the world, especially after the 9/11 attacks. Following that event, al-Qaeda gained popularity among other radical groups, and more al-Qaeda-affiliated groups started becoming effective in various regions. One of the groups that outshined was al-Qaeda in Iraq (later on becoming ISIS), which succeeded in controlling areas of Iraqi and Syrian territory by mid-2015.

The U.S.-led coalition started a military campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The coalition was composed of more than 70 nations and some non-state armed organizations on the ground. Although ISIS was outnumbered and outgunned, it managed to endure for years. In How ISIS Fights?: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt, Omar Ashour examines how ISIS expanded and endured despite its limited power compared to its foes in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt. The book has 2 main hypotheses for explaining this issue. The first is that ISIS has been able to effectively shift between 3 combat strategies: conventional, guerilla, and terrorism. The second hypothesis is that ISIS has been able to invent innovative tactics within the 3 combat strategies in different ways, even in harsh conditions (p. 20).

The book consists of 6 main chapters. The first chapter starts with the introduction of the research question of the book: "how can the endurance and the earlier expansion of such an organization be militarily explained?" (p. 4). The chapter continues with an overview of the ISIS expansion and endurance in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt. Moreover, it illustrates ISIS' endurance by comparing other examples in recent history. For instance, the Taliban could survive only 60 days after the U.S.-led airstrikes started, and Saddam Hussein lost Baghdad less than 30 days after the U.S. invasion. In the case of ISIS, the organization lasted over 1,065 days in both of its capitals Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria (p. 4). Ashour refers to previous literature about insurgencies and offers definitions for some critical terms, such as jihadism, Salafism, and terrorism giving the book's research design at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 2 spotlights the journey of ISIS in Iraq by firstly giving an overview of the organization's military build-up in the country. ISIS' predecessor was al-Qaeda in Iraq, and its leader was Abu Musab...