Within about two weeks a major change took place in Syria. Rebel organizations toppled the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Even Assad had to flee the country. Now the command of the country is temporarily in the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It itself remained influenced by Al Qaeda for a long time. Now the fear is that while power remains vacant, this country may once again become a base for terrorist forces. In this too, there is a greater fear of the return of Islamic State, in view of which America is already attacking empty places. When and how was the Islamic State formed? The foundation of the Islamic State was laid during the civil war that started in Syria. Then Al Qaeda was formed there which was a kind of umbrella organization. There were many small groups below this. One of these was Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its militants were more aggressive, more fanatical. The strength kept increasing, and later it prepared itself completely differently. Its name was also changed from Al-Qaeda in Iraq to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Related News Within the next four years from 2011, Islamic State captured all the major cities of Syria. Even in Iraq his threat started being heard. Overall, it had firm rule over a territory of about 1 lakh square kilometres, while its impact was visible in the surrounding areas as well. In this way, the formal end took place. For the next year from 2016, many countries including America together launched military operations in Syria and Iraq and started eliminating the Islamic State. Ultimately by 2017 it lost most of its territory in Syria and Iraq. In the next few days, the entire country was declared free from Islamic State. However this did not happen. People of the terrorist organization are still active there. Camp IS has still lost most of its hold in the mountains and desert, but it has not been completely destroyed. IS fighters are still hiding in the Syrian desert and some remote areas of Iraq and continue carrying out sporadic attacks. They hide in caves, tunnels and small villages in the desert, where the army cannot reach. The border of Iraq and Syria has also become a refuge for them, which is quite intelligence. A part of the Euphrates river valley is also a stronghold of these fighters. Now if we talk about Al Qaeda, it was basically an umbrella, under which many like-minded terrorist groups were flourishing. Apart from Islamic State, there are still many other groups. For example, Al-Nusra Front. This group now remains Syria’s largest rebel group under the name of HTS. Although it calls itself separate from Al Qaeda, its ideology and many members are linked to the old group. This means that now when there is no government in the country, in a situation of zero, all of them can become active together. What is the benefit in being active again in Syria? This country has large reserves of oil and gas. Islamic State wants to strengthen its economic position by capturing them. This is the reason why he was not completely destroyed even after running away from here. American troops remain around the oil reserves, but with the fall of the Assad government, their condition may also weaken. There are many other challenges with the soldiers, like the local people remained against them. Extremist groups in Syria and Iraq are also supported by many other countries, which is affecting the strength of the army. Apart from this, demands were being raised from within America itself to return its soldiers, due to which their numbers kept decreasing. Now America has been alerted to ensure that Islamic State does not raise its head again in the power vacuum. This is the reason why on Sunday it carried out air strikes about 75 times on the Islamic State positions located on the border of both the countries. This attack is not the first time. In the past years too, the US Army had been carrying out small attacks on terrorist camps from time to time. But this attack is big and it is expected that this will provide a direct signal to the terrorists working under the influence of Islamic State or Al Qaeda. Why does America keep interfering? The first reason for this is that being a superpower, it considers intervention as its moral responsibility. There are many economic and strategic interests as well. For example, oil and gas reserves are a big reason why the US is so interested in Syria. America has a strong influence in the Middle East region and it does not want countries like Iran or Turkey to compete with it.
