The year 2015 was a year of terror, given the rise of ISIS, several major school shootings and the Paris bombings. Unfortunately, the year 2016 also isn’t expected to be any better. ISIS plans to kill thousands of civilians around the world next year as they seek to draw the West into an unprecedented “final battle.”

The revelation comes from one of the world’s leading authorities on the terror group, which adds fuel to fears of a New Year’s Eve attack in London and other major cities.

In Times Square, for instance, approximately one million revelers will be guarded by a larger than normal security force equipped with guns, Tasers, radiation detectors and bomb sniffing dogs. Authorities claim they have spent months preparing for any possible terrorist scenario that could occur during the annual celebration. Partygoers can expect to have their handbags inspected at entry checkpoints.⁽¹⁾

Federal officials already arrested a Muslim convert in western New York, who was allegedly planning to attack a local restaurant. Emanuel Lutchman, 25, has since been charged with attempting to provide material to aid ISIS. And in Brussels, a scheduled New Year’s Eve fireworks show was canceled Wednesday over fears of a terrorist attack.⁽¹⁾

Bringing the West to its knees

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. ISIS has threatened to activate dozens of sleeper cells in “dozens of countries” in an effort to destabilize Western governments and trigger a massive military retaliation in the Middle East.⁽²⁾

The Islamic state was responsible for more than 50 attacks in 18 countries that killed approximately 1,100 people and injured around 1,700 people in 2014. Next year, these numbers will likely be higher, according to Theodore Karasik, a Gulf-based analyst of regional geo-political affairs who has extensively studied ISIS’s behavior.⁽²⁾

“ISIS’s media operation is taunting its enemy to come to fight their Final Battle,” he told the sources. “But first, it wants to show its global reach with zeal…from cells, to lone wolves, to bedroom jihadists – to target landmarks and crowds in dozens of countries across the world.”⁽²⁾

“There are close to 40 ISIS affiliates globally with millions of adherents and believers around the world. The New Year may ring in with disturbing terror attacks,” he added.⁽²⁾

“ISIS is an airborne disease and still remains robust as the movement enters into a new combative and aggressive phase.

“Many of us see the change of year as ‘turning over a new leaf’ and ISIS may do the same.

“The level of ISIS’s destructiveness, to force confrontations across the world, indicates that 2016 is likely to be more chaotic than 2015.

“The threat is real, and the requirement for international, regional, and local cooperation is truly necessary and will be tested again and again in perhaps unexpected places.”⁽²⁾

ISIS threats have Archbishop of Canterbury worried about apocalypse

Earlier this week, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi broadcasted an audio message, which claimed his forces were doing “very well” and pleaded with his followers to “be confident God will grant us victory.” The message was the first means of communication released by the ISIS chief in nearly a year.

In response to these threats, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warned the Islamic state, also referred to as Daesh, about triggering a war that could destroy the Christian faith in the very region it was founded.

“They hate difference, whether it is Muslims who think differently, Yazidis or Christians, and because of them the Christians face elimination in the very region in which Christian faith began,” he told the congregation.⁽²⁾

“This apocalypse is defined by themselves and heralded only by the angel of death.”⁽²⁾

Sources include:

(1) NBCNews.com

(2) Express.co.uk