Isis is slowly transforming the way that lone wolves are used by jihadis. It departs significantly from al-Qaeda in the way it views attacks by individuals striking in its name. It is mobilising sympathisers as active conscripts in its military campaign, whereas al-Qaeda tends to view sympathisers as part of a long-term effort to build legitimacy.
Amaq, one of the group’s media arms, claimed responsibility for Sunday’s mass shooting carried out by Omar Mateen in a gay club in Orlando, Florida, although the US authorities now believe Mateen simply took the Isis name as a badge and was not a trained operative of the group. Amaq also took credit for the murder of a police commander and his wife near Paris. The news agency described the perpetrators in both cases as Isis “fighters”, a term the jihadi group uses interchangeably with “soldiers”.
The attacks followed a recent speech by Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, an Isis spokesman, in which he urged sympathisers to launch attacks in their countries during the month of Ramadan. This was the second such call made by Mr Adnani in the space of a year. In June 2015, he called on followers globally to make Ramadan a “month of calamity” for disbelievers.