The global war on terror continues 23 years after the 9/11 attacks as ISIS and al Qaeda expand their influence.

The terrorist attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, by al Qaeda jihadists altered the course of security globally, leading to the ongoing Global War on Terror.

Over 20 years have elapsed since the 19 hijackers boarded four commercial flights and crashed into the Twin Towers in New York City, the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and an empty field in Pennsylvania after passengers on United Airlines flight 93 thwarted what is believed to have been an attempt to strike either the U.S. Capitol or the White House.

The plan, as outlined by Osama bin Laden, resulted in the deaths of 2,977 victims 23 years ago and initiated a global fight against extremism.

Although the U.S. war in Afghanistan has ended and the defeat of Islamic terrorist organizations like al Qaeda and the Islamic State has been declared, experts caution that the threat posed by extremist groups is still imminent.

Bill Roggio, senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and editor of the Long War Journal, stated to Planet Chronicle Digital that the threat has evolved. While it is harder to launch a 9/11-style attack, there is more opportunity for jihadists from both al Qaeda and the Islamic State to carry out individual attacks, as seen over the past decade and a half.

Before 9/11, al Qaeda was operating openly in Afghanistan and on a cellular level in many countries. Now, there are safe havens and battlefields with thousands of fighters worldwide.

The 2024 Global Terrorism Index, released by the Institute for Economics & Peace in February, revealed that deaths from terrorism rose by 22% from the previous year, reaching their highest level since 2017.

Despite the increase in terrorist-related deaths last year, including the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the jump is still 23% lower than the global peak seen in 2015. The Institute only began releasing the GTI report over a decade into the Global War on Terror in 2012.

Terrorist activity in the Middle East has been on the rise, with attacks by terrorist groups, war between Israel and Hamas, Iran's support of terrorist groups, the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, and ISIS attacks against coalition forces. However, the Middle East is no longer the "central hub" of terrorist activity.

The epicenter of terrorism has shifted from the Middle East and North Africa to sub-Saharan Africa, with the Sahel region being the main focus. This region now accounts for almost half of all deaths from terrorism worldwide, according to a GTI report. The report also noted that deaths from terrorism in the Sahel increased by 38% in 2023 compared to 2022.

Nearly a quarter of all global terrorism-related deaths occurred in Burkina Faso, where over 1,900 people were killed in 258 reported incidents last year.

In 2023, for the first time since the Institute started publishing the GTI report over a decade ago, a country other than Afghanistan or Iraq was ranked as the most affected by terrorism.

In Burkino Faso, the State Department evaluates that ISIS-Sahel and JNIM, an al Qaeda affiliate, are the most active terrorist groups, with JNIM being responsible for most of the claimed attacks.

ISIS is not responsible for attacks in Burkina Faso, which is among the countries where such attacks are not linked to any specific group.

The Middle East Institute's Director of Syria and Countering Terrorism & Extremism programs, Charles Lister, stated that ISIS is one of the first terrorist organizations to regularly avoid taking responsibility for their attacks in an effort to hide their activities from the global community.

Experts have warned that despite being declared defeated in December 2018, ISIS is still growing and expanding its influence globally.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Nagata, former Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Central (SOCCENT) and an MEI Distinguished Senior Fellow on National Security, stated during an event hosted by MEI on Tuesday that we did not inflict a strategic defeat on the Islamic State, but only an operational or tactical defeat.

"Our inability to achieve a strategic defeat of the Islamic State is evident through the presence of ISIS franchises across the globe, from Africa to South Asia," he stated. "No other terrorist group has ever been able to establish a global network of such scale, sophistication, and technological capability in conducting terrorist activities."

The GTI report stated that attacks by IS and its affiliates accounted for 14% of all attacks worldwide last year, although the organization believes this number is likely much higher in reality.

"According to Lister, a senior fellow with MEI, ISIS has successfully utilized local conflicts and ungoverned areas in a manner that al Qaeda has not been able to achieve. This, he believes, is a cause for concern."

ISIS, like other Islamic terrorist groups including al Qaeda, seeks to acquire land in order to establish a caliphate, a form of government that adheres to strict Sharia law interpretations.

Despite its expansion beyond the Middle East, Syria remains the country most affected by the Islamic State, with U.S. and coalition forces still fighting the terrorist network.

This year, the U.S. and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have conducted over 200 operations against ISIS, with most of them taking place in Iraq.

The Pentagon has confirmed that it is in talks with Iraqi officials about withdrawing all U.S. forces from Iraq by September 2025, despite an increase in anti-ISIS missions.

In Iraq and Syria, around 3,400 U.S. troops collaborate with Iraqi and Kurdish security forces to combat ISIS.

The withdrawal of troops from Syria has caused security experts great concern, as it may worsen the already challenging situation in the region, where the U.S. and coalition forces face obstacles in countering ISIS due to Iran-backed militias.

Lister warned that leaving Syria would have a knock-on effect on our ability to operate there, and that we would have a whole lot of things to worry about.

To defeat ISIS, it is crucial to collaborate with a group of countries to gather more accurate information and take joint action against the terrorists.

Nagata cautioned that ISIS will persist until countries tackle the underlying socio-economic and human rights problems.

"Defeating the idea of a terrorist group, especially one as skilled as the Islamic State, is the most challenging aspect of dealing with them," he stated. "Even if we tactically defeat them, it won't solve the issue," he added.