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“ISIS progress in its campaign to control territory in Iraq is visible in its reported statistics,” the Institute said.

“The destruction of houses, establishment of checkpoints and claims to control cities speak directly to the control of territory.”

Researchers said the publication of two consecutive annual reports demonstrated that the group had a well- established and functioning organizational structure. The metrics it produced to analyse its performance were broken down by province, by type of device and nature of attacks.

ISIS, a sophisticated grouping with at least 8,000 jihadists in its ranks — up to 400 of them believed to be from Britain — has also adopted a wide ranging social media strategy to recruit to its ranks and disseminate propaganda.

Its use of Twitter underlines how easy it is for jihadists to get their message out.

One recent posting appears to celebrate the resumption of an account that was made unavailable following the ISIS takeover of parts of Iraq.

“@Qawlu-Sawarim: Brothers & sisters please follow our beloved brother Abu Abdullah @AlBrittani. His account was suspended by kufr after a victory in Iraq,” it said. The name al-Brittani implies the fighter is from Britain.

Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic intelligence service, said the excitement of the fighters was on open display on Twitter.

“Euphoric young people are sharing on the internet what they are experiencing hour by hour,” he said. “They are posting gruesome pictures of executions, of severed heads… it is staggering to see the numbers of ’likes’ and links, and it shows there is a group in Germany which is ready to be radicalized and to travel to Syria.”