The caliphate strikes back

摘要

For months Iraqis were told that Islamic State (IS) was on the way out. In April Haider al-Abadi, the prime minister, declared he had won the "psychological battle" after chasing the jihadists from Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's old hometown. Baghdad residents played pop songs mocking IS on their car radios. But Ramadi's fall on May 15th has punctured that optimism, and the streets are again filled with foreboding. IS is only a short drive away, and also menaces the oil refinery and power plant at Baiji on which Baghdad depends. The news five days later that IS had seized Palmyra, in Syria, heightened the alarm.