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Islamic State Sprouting Limbs Beyond Its Base
(New York Times) Eric Schmitt and David D. Kirkpatrick - The Islamic State is expanding beyond its base in Syria and Iraq to establish militant affiliates in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt and Libya, American intelligence officials assert. They estimate that the group's fighters number 20,000 to 31,500 in Syria and Iraq. There are less formal pledges of support from "probably at least a couple hundred extremists" in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Yemen, according to an American counterterrorism official.