ISIS's Expanding Campaign in Europe

"Coordinated ISIS attacks are deliberate, planned attacks that ISIS has designed, resourced, and supported from Syria, Iraq, or Libya. Senior ISIS leaders are often involved in planning these attacks and training recruits. Coordinated ISIS attacks vary in scale and complexity from relatively low-level attacks such as vehicle rammings to sophisticated operations such as the 2015 Paris attacks.*

ISW has subcategorized each coordinated ISIS attack based on the type of attacker in order to gain insight into how ISIS is executing its campaign. The attackers in ISIS coordinated attacks to date have been returning ISIS foreign fighters, ISIS refugee operatives, or local ISIS recruits who conducted or attempted to conduct an attack while in contact with an ISIS “cyberplanner.” ISIS cyberplanners are foreign fighters who conduct online recruitment for ISIS, but also perform remote logistical and other support functions by leveraging criminal and other networks in Europe to enable ISIS recruits to access resources necessary for an attack. US-led coalition airstrikes against the ISIS external attack network in Syria and Iraq have focused on eliminating these nodes."