In a U-turn, the ISIS is using more women to evade security measures and spearhead a wave of attacks across Europe and the Islamic world as it loses territory in the West Asia, according to a media report.
Previously, female members of ISIS were confined to support roles and kept away from the battlefield but the policy appears to have been reversed as US-led military pressure on its main strongholds in Iraq, Syria and libya intensified and substantial territory began to be lost, The Guardian reported.
It said researchers have described a “drastic U-turn” on deploying female recruits, a new tactic that poses a challenge for security organisations which already have difficulty penetrating extremist networks and identifying potential attackers.
Officials have repeatedly warned that ISIS would launch attacks as it retreated from earlier gains. Since August, a series of plots involving women have been uncovered by security authorities in Europe and north Africa, the report said and mentioned a plot in Paris in September involving four women aged 19-39 that received wide media coverage.