TEL AVIV – The Islamic State and its extremist allies currently boast an army estimated by Egypt to consist of about 180,000 Islamist fighters.
An Egyptian intelligence document, the contents of which were obtained by WND, warns that while the U.S. has been attempting to maintain a coalition to fight ISIS, the Islamic terrorist organization has itself been hard at work building a sustainable coalition of jihadist gunmen.
The 180,000 figure is six times greater than a CIA estimate from last September, which placed the number of ISIS fighters at between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters.
According to Egypt, ISIS has created an umbrella army with the Taliban, Al Shabab, Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and local jihadist groups from Yemen, Mali, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan and the Egyptian Sinai.
Egypt is warning this ISIS-allied army is preparing for a major insurgency in numerous countries by this spring or summer.
“There is no sign the international community understands what is happening before our eyes,” stated Egyptian an intelligence official. “ISIS is creating the fundamentals of a real governance in not just Iraq and Syria but also in Algeria, Afghanistan, Yemen and beyond.”
Egypt’s 180,000 estimate dovetails with figures claimed by Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.
Hussein told the U.K. Independent in November that Kurdish intelligence believes ISIS militant fighters to number at least 200,000.
“I am talking about hundreds of thousands of fighters because they are able to mobilize Arab young men in the territory they have taken,” he said.
Hussein in November met with congressional leaders and declared that to defeat ISIS an efficient army of 80,000 would be necessary.
