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DAMASCUS, June 23-- While some people suspect the recent surge in terror attacks in Europe is linked to the defeats of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, others believe that terrorists are only motivated by the need to send out political messages. Dozens of people have been killed since March in a spate of terror attacks that has spread through the United Kingdom, France and Belgium, in which the terror suspects used vehicles, knives, and explosives to mow down pedestrians, attack police and blow up innocent people. Terror attacks have also rocked Egypt, Iran and Somalia recently. Ahmad Ashqar, a Syrian political analyst, told Xinhua that as the U.S.-led coalition has intensified its strikes against IS militants, the terror group and its sympathizers are compelled to launch more terror attacks in retaliation so to send out a message that they cannot be defeated. "With all major powers fighting it, the IS is not in its best conditions, particularly now that it's being targeted and hunted down in its strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq," Ashqar said. Many European countries are part of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, which has been striking IS in Syria since 2017 and has escalated its offensives recently, he explained. Two weeks ago, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) unleashed a wide-scale offensive against the IS in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terror group in Syria. | 
