Fall of ISIS Stronghold Raqqa Will Change War on Extremists, Not End It

“The real challenge will be [ISIS] fighters fleeing to other areas,” said Karin Von Hippel, director general of RUSI, a defense think tank in London. After Raqqa's fall, the group will most likely revert to operating as an insurgency and focus on carrying out attacks abroad instead of capturing and holding territory, experts said. Von Hippel called this new phase “ISIS as it moves into the cloud," and warned it would be especially challenging because it would involve fighting the group's ideology — something coalition partners aren't very good at.