Defence analysts said that ISIS is using the pandemic to try to regroup after it was defeated in Syria and Iraq. The latest attack came after a coalition surveillance aircraft picked up a number of fighters operating around caves a few miles from Bayji, a city about 200 kilometres north of Iraq’s capital. “ISIS have demonstrated a strong resilience narrative and they are able to lose leaders but still continue and survive,” said Senior Fellow Rafaello Pantucci, an ISIS expert at the RSIS. “Saying that this group is out is premature, and has always been premature, as the Baghdad attack was ambitious and successful and made a big statement.”