BEIRUT: By bombing a Russian passenger plane over Egypt and carrying out deadly attacks in Paris, the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group has demonstrated both its resilience and its growing international reach, experts say. Unlike its forerunner and now rival Al-Qaeda, which has focused largely on spectacular foreign attacks, IS has promoted a strategy of “remaining and expanding” in territory in Syria and Iraq. But with the Paris and Egypt attacks, it has shown it can also rely on affiliates and sympathisers to strike abroad, even as its “caliphate” is attacked by a US-led coalition, Russian air strikes, Iraqi and Syrian government troops and...
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