Three ways ISIS will remain a threat after defeat.
Correction: At 0:18, a previous version of the video mistakenly suggested that Turkey-backed forces are fighting ISIS in the west. In fact, the Russia-backed Syrian army and its allies are fighting ISIS in the north and west. The error has been rectified.
We also want to clarify that the color coded lines that appeared in the previous version at 0:18 did not indicate a border or the frontline. The lines were meant to illustrate that ISIS was under attack on all sides. That highlight has now been removed to avoid any confusion.
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It was also a symbolic loss, Mosul is where the group declared a caliphate, or Islamic territory, in 2014. This set them apart from other terrorist organizations. They weren’t just a network of jihadists strung out across several countries, like al-Qaeda, they governed over actual territory, which they called the Islamic State.
Now with the loss of Mosul, the fall of the ISIS caliphate seems imminent, but what happens when ISIS is gone?
Now this doesn’t mean ISIS will be gone. In fact, the fall of ISIS raises some complicated issues. So I asked the Vox.com Foreign team to explain what could happen after ISIS is defeated .
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