INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightScreen grabImage caption
IS has broadcast slick propaganda videos globally
The EU police
agency Europol says an international operation has struck a major blow against the internet propaganda of the Islamic State group.Cyber
specialists in various European countries, Canada and the US targeted online sites including the Amaq News Agency, seen as the main IS
mouthpiece.Europol co-ordinated a "simultaneous multinational takedown" of IS media, seizing digital evidence and servers
IS jihadists may now be identified.IS broadcasts in several languages.The EU members involved in Europol's operation on 25-26 April were
Belgium, Bulgaria, France, the Netherlands, Romania and the UK.Europol says the data retrieved is expected to help police identify the
administrators behind IS media outlets and "potentially radicalised individuals".International operations have targeted Amaq web systems
Europol's head, Rob Wainwright, said the latest operation had "punched a big hole" in IS's capability to spread propaganda and radicalise
young people.Media captionThe rise and fall of Islamic State's propaganda machineThe UK's Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit led the
process of identifying and referring web domains that had been exploited by IS jihadists, Europol said.According to research by BBC
Monitoring, the IS media operation has shrunk into a shadow of its former self, since IS was ousted from its Raqqa stronghold in Syria, in
October 2017.The IS group's video and still-picture output fell sharply in the weeks before it lost Raqqa
BBC Monitoring also observed "the absence, or publication interruption, of two key IS media products: monthly magazine Rumiyah and al-Bayan
radio".The Europol-led operation also targeted the IS outlets Halumu and Nashir news.
