Should the necessity come up, Islamic State (previously ISIS/ISIL) may purchase a nuclear weapon in Pakistan within 12 months, the group’s in-house magazine boasts in an article attributed to hostage journalist John Cantlie.
The article talks about a “hypothetical operation” in which the Islamic State makes use of its “billions of dollars” to purchase a nuclear gadget in Pakistan “through weapons dealers with links to corrupt officials in the region.”
The weapon may then be transported by way of Libya and Nigeria. The article means that “drug shipments from Columbia bound for Europe pass through West Africa, so moving other types of contraband from East to West is just as possible.”
The gadget would land on the south shores of South America and make its solution to Mexico, from the place “it’s just a quick hop through a smuggling tunnel” to the US. The chilling conclusion is that in the top, “they’re mingling with another 12 million ‘illegal’ aliens in America with a nuclear bomb in the trunk of their car.”
The writer admits that is a “far-fetched” situation, however goes on to say it’s much more attainable now than it was a yr in the past.
Islamic State, he says, “will be looking to do something big, something that would make any past operation look like a squirrel shoot.” Something of the size may be made attainable, based on the article, by an unprecedented condensation of varied excessive Islamist teams underneath the fear group’s wing.
The article mentions militant teams equivalent to Boko Haram, which lately pledged allegiance to Islamic State. It says there are a lot of Boko followers throughout the Middle East given confidence by the territorial positive factors made by the ISIS terrorists: “Nothing on this scale has happened this big or this quick before. Huge swathes of Pakistan, Nigeria, Libya, Yemen and the Sinai Peninsula are all now united under the black flag.”
The estimates as to the variety of ISIS fighters throughout the territories it management differ tremendously. The complete quantity in Iraq and Syria vary from about 30,000, based on CIA estimates, to as much as 70,000 based on the Russian army, to as many as 200,000, based on a November assertion by a Kurdish chief.
It is much more troublesome to pinpoint the precise sum of money Islamic State has in its disposal. Some estimates have steered it has about $2 billion in belongings, which places shopping for a nuclear weapon far past its functionality in the meanwhile.