After losing territory, Islamic State fighters are turning to guerrilla warfare - and the extremist group's propaganda sheet tells them how to do it.
In recent weeks, the online newspaper "Al-Naba" has been encouraging followers to adopt guerilla tactics and has published detailed instructions on how to carry out so-called "hit and run" operations, writes Reuters.
This group uses such tactics in areas where it intends to expand beyond Iraq and Syria.
The IDF has tried that approach before, but the new guidelines say it is now adopting it as standard operating procedure.
At the height of its power, IS ruled millions in large parts of Syria and Iraq.
However, in March it lost its last significant piece of territory, the Syrian village of Baghuz, and was forced to return to its roots - a style of fighting that avoids direct confrontation, weakening the enemy through attrition and gaining popular support.
This attempt to revive IS has so far been successful, analysts say, and in recent weeks there have been numerous attacks around the world, including places that have never been targeted by the group before.
"The sad reality is that ISIS is still very dangerous," said Rita Kac, executive director of the SITE intelligence group, which monitors the extremists' activities. "She has the equipment and the platform she needs to start rebellions around the world."
In a rare video released by the IS network Al Furkan in April, the group's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi encouraged followers to fight and weaken the enemy by attrition, stressing that waging war is more important than winning.
Reuters writes that he appeared darker than in his only other video from a mosque in Mosul in 2014.
In the new video, next to him is a "Kalashnikov", the same weapon that appeared in videos of al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and Baghdadi's predecessor Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who used guerilla warfare tactics.
"He acted as the commander of a hardened mujahideen, a rebel group, not as a pampered leader of a well-to-do caliphate," says Katz. "His appearance totally mobilized Islamic State supporters around the world."
Hassan Abu Haniyeh, a Jordanian expert on Islamists, says IS is using guerrilla tactics to temporarily capture cities to attract media attention, but also as part of a new strategic approach.
"This kind of war has turned into a group strategy," he said. "At this stage they are using it as a war of attrition, as Baghdadi said in the last speech."
In April, IS announced that it had attacked the city of Fuqaha in Libya, killing a local government official and setting fire to the city's guard headquarters. "They took control of the city for a few hours and then returned safely to the base," the ID fighters said.
The newspaper "Al-Naba", one of the most important newspapers of the jihadist group, has published a four-part series in recent weeks, called "The temporary fall of cities as a method of work for the Mujahideen".
In those articles, IS urges fighters to avoid face-to-face confrontations with the enemy - something the group has previously encouraged.
It explains how guerrilla fighters can weaken the enemy without suffering losses. Jihadists are encouraged to take weapons from victims and steal or burn their valuables.
One of the objectives of the hit-and-run attack, it is said, is to take hostages, release prisoners and take money from the enemy.
Other goals are to "provide the needs of the fighters" by collecting money, food, medicine and weapons "especially when it is difficult to provide these needs because the fighters are in a weak position," one of the articles reads, as reported by Reuters.
Although it is not possible to confirm any of the group's posts, it has announced some extensive operations.
On April 18, IS announced that it had carried out its first attack in the Democratic Republic of Congo and announced the establishment of the "Central African Province" of its "caliphate". The group has since claimed responsibility for several more attacks in Congo.
On May 10, IS announced that it had established a province in India. It also said that IS fighters inflicted casualties on Indian fighters in Kashmir.
On the same day, militants on motorcycles stormed a town in northeastern Nigeria and opened fire on residents and soldiers in an attack later claimed by IS.
IS claims to have carried out more operations in Nigeria and dozens of similar attacks in recent weeks in Afghanistan, Niger, Somalia, Egypt, Pakistan, Chechnya, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
In several cases, the group released photos of bullets, rifles and other weapons it allegedly took from soldiers.
By carrying out attacks in a wide range of places, IS is promoting itself and proving that it can reorganize and modify its strategy, says Lait Alhuri, one of the founders and director of the Flashpoint group, which monitors militant activity on the Internet.
“ISIS temporarily occupies areas, demonstrates strength, subjugates local residents, even recruits some of them and provokes governments by exposing security lapses or weaknesses. It is a very important method for ID growth," he believes.
Guerrilla warfare is a cheaper way to inflict damage and the group uses that tactic in areas where it wants to expand, such as eastern Afghanistan, northeastern Nigeria, Somalia, North Africa, the Indian subcontinent and central Africa, Alhuri added.
"The media of this group know that it is important to emphasize this, not only because of strengthening the morale of the support base," Alhuri points out. "But it is equally important to spread its traces geographically - practically creating and expanding zones of unrest around the world."
An indicator that there is a lack of fighters and finances
Rita Kac of the SITE group says that these instructions for guerrilla warfare are the most detailed yet published by the IDF.
The vocabulary is similar to that used in the manuals that Al Qaeda published in Saudi Arabia several years ago in its electronic magazine "Al-Batar", which provided military instructions to supporters and cells around the world.
The new ID manual shows that this group lacks fighters and finances, Kac added.
When it lost its territory, the IS was also left without an important source of income, mainly from taxes and oil.
"Financially, territorially and militarily speaking, that group is very weak," Katz said. "With this in mind, the IS leadership is seeking to revive the so-called caliphate, paying special attention to areas outside of Iraq and Syria."
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