“..I thought ISIS was defeated?..”
Once I had a small farm in NC and near the gate to the barn was a large patch of briars. When I bought the land I had a tractor with bush-hog and I cut all the brush on the property and where there were briars and invasive weeds, I cut as low as possible. The next year they were back and I repeated the low cutting several times during the summer. They kept coming back. I borrowed a disk from a neighbor and cut up the soil, and they came back, not as bad, but they were there. Years later I sold the property, by then, the briars were insignificant, but still there. I drove by the property early this summer and the briars were worse than when I bought it originally. I suspect ISIS is much like those briars.
Did you claim the briars had been destroyed?
Your briars sound a lot like my Hawthornes.
Invasive weaponized plants.