1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Politics

Quadriga - Inside IS - The Structure of Terror

November 20, 2014

After beheading yet another western hostage, the Islamic State terrorist organization is now threatening direct attacks on the US and Britain. Documents that have recently come to light allow some insights into the group’s structure, and reveal an extensive finance network and sophisticated logistics systems for weapons and supplies. Is IS more powerful than experts previously believed?

https://p.dw.com/p/1Dqk0

Secret documents seized in Iraq include lists naming the estimated 20,000 fighters in the group, as well as potential suicide attackers. There are also indications that members of the organization are provided with extensive benefits - including the procurement of women. IS is apparently not only a terrorist state in name, but one that has also developed a state’s bureaucratic structures. It’s governing ‘caliphate’, which currently holds the reins of power in an area with a population of around seven million inhabitants, apparently has access to billions in cash and other monetary instruments.

Kampf um Kobane 17.11.2014 Luftangriff
Image: picture-alliance/AP/Vadim Ghirda
Islamischer Staat Propaganda
Image: picture alliance/abaca

IS uses public execution as a tool to spread fear and cement its hold on power. Since the end of June, its agents have murdered 1,400 Syrians alone - shooting them, beheading them, or stoning them to death. Those numbers, which come from a Syrian human rights organization based in Britain, don’t reflect the many more casualties that have occurred on the battlefield.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo

Members of IS have joined a tightly-knit band that secures the loyalty of followers with supplies and extensive support. Where is the IS largesse coming from? What aspects of the terrorist organization draw adherents - including many from Europe? How does it retain their allegiance? And how can democratic nations fight the threat the organization poses?

Inside IS - The Structure of Terror
Let us know what you think: quadriga(at)dw.de

Inside IS - The Structure of Terror

27.02.2014 DW Quadriga Amir Musawy

Amir Musawy – is the Berlin correspondent for Iraqia TV. He studied media and political science in Bonn, Germany, and has reported for Associated Press in London. Musawy has worked for the Iraqi foreign ministry and several NGOs in his capacity as a political scientist and media consultant. He has taught Media & Communication at the University of Minsk in Belarus.

23.05.2013 DW Quadriga Ferhad Ahma
Image: DW

Asiem El Difraoui– studied politics and economics in Cairo, London and then Paris, where he received his Ph.D. He worked as editor in chief for IP Productions, a news agency focusing on the Middle East and the Arab world. He has written numerous prize-winning documentary films and news reports. He formed part of the Middle East and Africa research group at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, focusing on jihadist propaganda on the internet. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Media and Communication Policy in Berlin. His latest book deals with Egyptian society after the revolution.

14.08.2014 DW Quadriga Antje Bauer

Antje Bauer– The freelance journalist majored in political science and Islamic studies and now works as a reporter specializing in the Middle East, Turkey and Afghanistan. From 1988 to 1993 she was based in Madrid as the Spain correspondent for the Tageszeitung (taz). Her journalistic repertoire includes print and radio reports for Germany's ARD public broadcasting network. She has also translated the novel "Baksheesh" by Esmahan Aykol from Turkish into German. Additionally Antje Bauer works with the Deutsche Welle Academy, offering workshops for journalists in the Arab world.