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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50850325
ISIS in Iraq Getting Stronger Again
(BBC News) Orla Guerin - The Islamic State (ISIS) is reorganizing in Iraq and ISIS attacks are increasing, Kurdish and Western intelligence officials have told BBC. Lahur Talabany, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official, said the organization has spent the past 12 months rebuilding from the ruins of the caliphate "and we think the rebuilding phase is over." He says ISIS no longer wants to control any territory to avoid being a target, and they have gone underground in Iraq's Hamrin Mountains. The militants are also benefitting from strained relations between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government. According to Talabany, there is now a vast area of no man's land in northern Iraq between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and their Iraqi counterparts. The only ones patrolling in this area are ISIS. Peshmerga intelligence says ISIS ranks have recently been reinforced by 100 fighters who crossed the border from Syria, including some foreigners with suicide belts.