(A chilling warning from Iraqi spy chief Hamid al-Shatri has set off global alarm bells, as new intelligence suggests ISIS has quintupled its numbers in Syria over the last 14 months, fueled by the collapse of Kurdish control and a chaotic U.S. withdrawal from key bases.)
In a rare and candid interview in Baghdad on January 26, 2026, al-Shatri revealed that the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria have surged from 2,000 to an estimated 10,000 fighters. This “precipitous rise” is attributed to a security vacuum in northeastern Syria, where Syrian government troops under President Ahmed al-Sharaa recently moved to retake territory from the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces). The resulting chaos at prisons like al-Aqtan in Raqqa has reportedly allowed hundreds of militants to flee into the desert.
The threat is compounded by the final departure of U.S. forces from the Ain al-Asad airbase in Anbar Province this month, ending a two-decade deployment in western Iraq. Iraqi authorities have already reinforced the 370-mile border with concrete barriers and thermal cameras, but al-Shatri warns that the group is successfully recruiting Arab tribesmen and defectors from other militant factions. As Iraq agrees to repatriate 7,000 ISIS fighters from Syrian prisons to prevent mass escapes, the “ghost of 2014” looms over a region struggling to maintain a fragile peace.
