Greater coordination needed in order to defeat Islamic State

The current strategy of the United States and its allies in the fight against the Islamic State is unlikely to succeed and more international coordination is needed, said experts.

In the past few months, the IS has not only repeatedly hit the headlines with online execution videos, it has also captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.

The militant group now controls some 300,000 square km of land and the number of its fighters surged to above 100,000, posing severe threats to regional security.

Ibrahim al-Ameri, a professor of politics at Baghdad University, said that compared with al-Qaida, the IS has a more complicated and advanced structure, testified by the fact that the group has not slowed its military advances in Iraq and Syria despite reports about the death of its supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The US-led air raids seemed to have made little impact in weakening the IS, he said.

Moreover, the IS appears to be a better publicist in advocating its ideas. The online videos by the IS with English subtitles are of much higher quality than al-Qaida's home-video style propaganda.

"With these means, the IS could in the name of religion lure more young people from Western countries to take part in the so-called Holy War in the Middle East," al-Ameri said.

The IS militants are running rampant for another reason: the group has an appalling resilience in withstanding strikes from outside, another expert said.

Persistent airstrikes by the US and its partners targeting the extremist group have indeed weakened its communication networks, dented its combat capability and made it impossible for the group to assemble large troops, said Najib al-Jubouri, a political commentator in Iraq.

However, as the scope of air raids expands, IS militants started to hide among civilians, making the airstrikes less effective, al-Jubouri said, noting that the allies could hardly uproot threats from the IS simply via airstrikes.

Considering the new trend of terrorism in recent years, the international community should take measures to enhance cooperation and coordination in security and counterterrorism, he said.