What Will The Islamic State Look Like In 2018?

Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of Raqqa, Iraq, in June, 2014. (Reuters)

ABC News Online: Islamic State: What will the hard-line jihadist group look like in 2018?

Now that the Islamic State caliphate across Syria and Iraq has been largely dismantled, the question among analysts remains as to what shape and form the group will take in 2018 and how it will manifest itself throughout the region.

But rather than deeming the brutal militant group completely destroyed or defeated, counter-insurgency expert David Kilcullen explains that for now, it has just lost control of its cross-border Middle Eastern territory as it seeks to rebuild itself.

"It's fair to say that the territorial possessions of Islamic State — that is, all the cities they controlled and roughly one third of Iraq and Syria that they had at their height — that sort of territorial holding has been crushed," Mr Kilcullen told the ABC's The World program.

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WNU editor: They are in the rebuilding phase right now. But since their ideology is still accepted by millions .... they are going to be a problem for a very long time.