The DIA said IS activity began to pick up in September, with a growing number of attacks in Syria's central desert against forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In Syria, in particular, IS appears 'poised to increase activity … after a period of recuperation and recovery,' the Defense Intelligence Agency told the Defense Department's inspector general in its just-released quarterly report on U.S.

military and intelligence officials caution that the group's fortunes may be starting to change, which may allow it to retake territory in Syria and Iraq and its leaders to assert greater influence over affiliates and followers worldwide. As much of the Western world focuses on the growing threat from the Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan, new intelligence suggests that there is reason again to worry about the terror group's core in Syria and Iraq.ĭown to an estimated 10,000 fighters, a small fraction of what it boasted at its peak, and working in small, clandestine cells across the two countries, the terror group, also known as IS or ISIS, has been trying to maintain what intelligence and military officials describe as a low-level insurgency, with varying degrees of success.īut U.S.

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