by Noureddine Omar | 2026-05-22

The "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS)'s extensive propaganda portrayed an invincible new Caliphate during its aggressive rise.

However, the group’s inherent fragility and true nature were quickly exposed the moment the organized war against it began.

Its fundamental weakness became obvious through its inability to protect its own leadership from targeted elimination strikes.

ISIS leadership's rigid, top-down command structure stripped local commanders of flexibility, preventing rapid battlefield adaptation.

Most core commanders were neutralized without receiving support from the remaining rank-and-file members or the civilian population.

"ISIS adopted a hierarchical leadership structure which fostered a climate of dictatorship and deep-seated arrogance," military expert and terror group specialist Yahya Mohammed Ali told Al-Fassel.

This attitude manifested in interactions between first- and second-tier commanders and with civilians in controlled territories.

Following the group's defeat and the elimination of its essential leaders, its deep-seated fragility became starkly and immediately evident.

Irreversible rejection

The remaining few commanders attempting to hide across various countries found themselves without any protection or support.

Crucially, they lacked a supportive social environment capable of sustaining their continued survival and operations.

Ali noted that the swift and brutal campaigns of persecution inflicted upon civilians by ISIS proved to be exceptionally short-lived.

The ultimate demise of the terrorist organization was surprisingly swift, despite its initial meteoric rise across the region.

"This indiscriminate brutality spared absolutely no one, including the Sunni sect civilians the group ostensibly claimed to protect and represent," he added.

Such pervasive and indiscriminate violence ultimately engendered a sentiment of total and irreversible rejection among the subjugated populace.

This decisive sentiment of rejection clearly manifested itself during the consequential campaigns to liberate all of Syria and Iraq.

Propaganda websites vanish

Director of new media at Egypt's Ibn Al-Walid Center for Studies and Field Research Mazen Zaki, confirmed that the ISIS group has also disappeared from the World Wide Web.

It has not merely vanished from the physical battlefield; the entire digital apparatus has also been completely dismantled.

"All websites and magazines that once aggressively disseminated its ideology, falsehoods, and distorted interpretations of the Quran have completely vanished," he said.

This immediate cessation serves as powerful evidence that the group’s numerous lies have been exposed and it has completely lost its supporter base.

Moreover, the group's once-powerful "cyber army," instrumental in global expansion and primary recruitment, has also entirely vanished from the internet.

Zaki concluded that the military loss of capabilities and leadership on the battlefield is inextricably linked to the loss of media and digital capacity.

These two synchronized developments stand as undeniable proof of the futility of an extremist enterprise destined for complete and abject failure from its very inception.