by Noureddine Omar | 2025-09-18

Attacks carried out by the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) in Europe show how the group now relies on exploiting desperate and vulnerable individuals rather than projecting broad influence.

Such attacks, experts said, are often carried out by people in fragile conditions whom ISIS manipulates to advance its agenda.

On September 10, the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf, Germany, sentenced 27-year-old Syrian Issa al-Hassan to life imprisonment for a stabbing attack at a festival in Solingen in August 2024.

During the attack, which left three people dead and eight others wounded, al-Hassan declared his support for ISIS.

He was convicted of three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and of operating on behalf of ISIS.

ISIS manipulation

Terrorist groups like ISIS exploit events or conditions that generate public sympathy, then manipulate and brainwash vulnerable individuals to justify and carry out attacks, said Syrian lawyer Bashir al-Bassam.

"The case of the Syrian young man who fell into ISIS’s trap and carried out what he was ordered through online recruitment confirms that the group continues to use the same old methods -- exploiting the disturbed, isolated, and weak-minded individuals to push them into carrying out its dirty work," Syrian lawyer Bashir al-Bassam told al-Fassel.

"Another method used by ISIS, or what remains of its online cells, involves taking advantage of the ongoing regional events to present itself as a defender of Islam and Muslims," he added.

"This was exactly what the convicted Syrian man in Germany claimed, saying that his attack was to defend the Palestinians," he explained.

"These slogans are exploited by ISIS and other extremist organizations to maintain their existence," al-Bassam said.

Diminished capabilities

Experts say that after the international campaign against ISIS, the group no longer has the capability to carry out military-style operations.

The group’s overall strength is in decline, they said.

"ISIS’ ability to reorganize military-style sleeper cells is largely impossible," military expert Yahya Mohammed Ali told al-Fassel.

"Those currently carrying out terrorist attacks are no more than young men lured through social media," he added.

These young men, he explained, are "indoctrinated and pushed into carrying out surprise attacks and targeting civilians during mass gatherings."

"ISIS has always exploited its operatives by pushing them into such acts, leaving them facing the reality of either standing trial or being killed in clashes with police at the time of the attack," Ali said.