3 attacks deepen fears about Daesh’s global reach

The attacks, carried out by Daesh militant group in France, Tunisia and Kuwait on Friday, appeared to have no connection in terms of tactic or target, The Washington Post reported.

The beheading and failed attempt to blow up a chemical plant in France bore no operational resemblance to the suicide bombing of a mosque in Kuwait or the armed assault on a tourist-packed beach in Tunisia.

Even so, the outbreak of violence Friday was seen by counterterrorism officials and experts as part of an emerging pattern — each inspired by, if not directly attributable to, the Islamic State, all somehow fitting into that terrorist group’s chaotic and violent agenda.

U.S. officials and experts said the nearly simultaneous eruptions of violence on three continents are likely to intensify anxieties about the Islamic State’s expanding reach.

The group is still seen as primarily focused on its regional ambitions in Iraq and Syria, where the Islamic State has maintained its grip on large tracts of territory despite recent military setbacks. U.S. officials have said that the organization seems far less driven to launch elaborate, overseas terrorist plots than al-Qaeda and its affiliates.

But the Islamic State is also increasingly seen as the center of an expanding movement whose disparate elements range from the ranks of stray followers drawn by the group’s brand of extreme brutality to formal franchises in Libya and other countries where security has deteriorated.

“It’s become more diffuse geographically and dispersed ideologically,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University. In some ways, Hoffman said, the amorphous nature of that network may make it more difficult to contain than al-Qaeda, which has often exerted an almost corporate-style control of regional franchises and terrorist plots.

U.S. officials said Friday that it was too early to determine whether the attacks were coordinated by the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

“While we’re still working to determine whether the attacks were coordinated or directed by ISIL, they bear the hallmarks that have defined ISIL’s violent ideology,” a U.S. official said.