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To prove its ascendance of a political fait accompli, the Islamic State (IS) is attempting to demonstrate its ability to control the areas it has thus far occupied. To this end, the group is organizing on the ground to give the impression that no one should count on its being defeated or on eliminating it, with or without airstrikes.
It is not by chance that IS orders that its slogan, “The Islamic State will remain,” be recited by its victims before they are killed, as recognition that it is an undeniable and unbeatable reality. The group is well aware that occupying land is not the same as having control over it, so it needs to assert its authority and power over the territory it has seized to make them IS strongholds.
