Daesh continues to lose large portions of the territory it once controlled in Syria and Iraq. In a July 2016 report, the research group IHS said Daesh lost 12 percent of its territory in the first six months of 2016. That followed a 14 percent drop in 2015, when its territory shrank to 78,000 square kilometers, a loss of 12,800 square kilometers.
At the time of the July 2016 report, Daesh controlled roughly 68,300 square kilometers in Iraq and Syria, roughly the size of Ireland.
“Over the past 18 months, the Islamic State has continued to lose territory at an increasing rate,” said Columb Strack, a senior IHS analyst. But he warned that the terrorists would likely try to divert attention from their failures by increasing attacks in the Middle East and Europe and sabotaging economic infrastructure.
In March 2016, Daesh lost the ancient city of Palmyra. Last year, the group lost control of Tel Abyad in Raqqa province in Syria. Later in the year, the strategic city of Fallujah, 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, was liberated by Iraqi forces.
The Pentagon said in May 2016 that Daesh had lost 45 percent of the territory once under its control in Iraq and 16 to 20 percent of the territory under its control in Syria.
“Over the coming year we are likely to see more towns and cities become isolated from the core caliphate, as was the case in Ramadi and Fallujah.” Strack said. “This could enable the fragmentation and gradual defeat of the Islamic State as a conventional force.”
Sources: IHS, Middle East Monitor