Islamist terror has evolved toward lone actors – and it's brutally effective

Isis has deepened Osama bin Laden’s idea of using violence to terrorize enemies and is better positioned to launch a far-reaching campaign of ‘leaderless jihad’

The two attacks that shook the US and France on Sunday and Monday suggest a very new form of terrorism, posing a dramatic new threat.

But the horrific actions of Omar Mateen in Orlando, Florida, and Larossi Aballa outside Paris are the result of a 20-year evolution of Islamic militancy towards a decentralised, anarchic but tragically effective type of violence.

If these smaller attacks kill​ fewer people, that doesn’t necessarily matter – t​​he cumulative effect is the same