With Spate Of Attacks, ISIS Shifts To Global Terror Network

Is ISIS training from building a caliphate to spreading terror worldwide? We’ll look at the latest surge of far-flung attacks.

The attacks by ISIS or supporters outside of its base in Iraq and Syria have been fierce and bloody in recent days. The biggest bombing in Baghdad since the beginning of the Iraq War. Hundreds dead. Terror attacks in Istanbul, in Bangladesh, in Saudi Arabia. And these after Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, the claim of affiliation in Orlando. Is ISIS hitting out because it’s losing at home? Is it simply going global? This hour On Point, confronting the bloody global reach of ISIS. -- Tom Ashbrook

Liz Sly, Beirut bureau chief for the Washington Post. (@lizsly)

Paul Pillar, professor at Georgetown University’s security studies program. Senior fellow in the Center for 21^st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution. Former U.S. National Intelligence officer for East and South Asia.

Rohan Gunaratna, professor of security studies and head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Resarch a the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Author of the book, “Inside al Qeada,” among many others. (@RohanGunaratna)

New York Times: Bangladesh Attack Is New Evidence That ISIS Has Shifted Its Focus Beyond the Mideast — "Bangladesh’s 160 million people are almost all Sunni Muslims, including a demographic bulge under the age of 25. This makes it valuable as a recruiting ground for the Islamic State, now under pressure in its core territory of Iraq and Syria. Western intelligence officials have been watching the organization pivot to missions elsewhere in the world, launching attacks on far-flung civilian targets that are difficult to deter with traditional military campaigns."

BBC News: Iraq violence: IS bombing kills 125 Ramadan shoppers in Baghdad — "At least 125 people have been killed and about 150 injured in an explosion claimed by the so-called Islamic State group in Baghdad, Iraqi police say. A car bomb exploded on a busy street in the Karrada district late on Saturday. The mainly Shia area was busy with shoppers late at night because it is the holy month of Ramadan. Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi was met by angry crowds while visiting the scene on Sunday. He later declared three days of national mourning."

Washington Post: Three suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia extend global wave of bombings and a bloody week — "Suicide bombers suspected of links to the Islamic State struck for the fourth time in less than a week, targeting three locations in Saudi Arabia in an extension of what appeared to be a coordinated campaign of worldwide bombings coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan."