How ISIS Fights: Military Tactics in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt

Explores the military endurance of ISIS in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt Based on extensive fieldwork in the Middle East, dozens of interviews with soldiers and fighters who engaged ISIS and their predecessors between 2013 and 2020, and hundreds of ISIS publications, battle-relevant videos and ISIS commanders’ audio-releasesFocuses on a core set of ISIS urban and suburban battles in Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi, Raqqa (City and Governorate), Derna, Sirte and Northeastern SinaiOffers insights into how ISIS, like-minded organisations and other armed non-state actors may or will fight in the future How did ISIS – a widely hated, massively outnumbered and ludicrously outgunned organisation – manage to occupy over 120 cities, towns and villages from the Southern Philippines to Western Libya? Seeking to understand ISIS’s combat effectiveness, Omar Ashour analyses the military and tactical innovations of ISIS and their predecessors in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt. He shows how their capacity to mix conventional military tactics with innovative guerrilla warfare and urban terrorism strategies allowed ISIS to expand and endure beyond expectations.