Here’s a look at Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Facts
Started as an al Qaeda splinter group.
Also known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Islamic State (IS).
ISIS aims to create an Islamic state called a caliphate across Iraq, Syria and beyond.
The group implements Sharia Law, rooted in eighth-century Islam, to establish a society that mirrors the region’s ancient past.
ISIS uses modern tools like social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters destroy holy sites and valuable antiquities as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam.
ISIS’s revenue comes from oil production and smuggling, taxes, ransoms from kidnappings, selling stolen artifacts, extortion and controlling crops.
Leader
Since August 3, 2023, the leader of ISIS has been Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. Abu al-Husain al-Husaini al-Quraishi was the leader from November 2022 until his death in 2023.
Timeline
2004 - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi establishes al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
2006 - Under Zarqawi, al Qaeda in Iraq tries to spark a sectarian war against the majority Shia community.
June 7, 2006 - Zarqawi is killed in a US strike. Abu Ayyub al-Masri takes his place as leader of AQI.
October 2006 - Masri announces the creation of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), and establishes Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as its leader.
April 2010 - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes leader of ISI after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Masri are killed in a joint US-Iraqi operation.
April 2013 - ISI declares its absorption of an al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front. Baghdadi says that his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS).
January 2014 - ISIS takes control of Falluja.
February 3, 2014 - Al Qaeda renounces ties to ISIS after months of infighting between al-Nusra Front and ISIS.
May 2014 - ISIS kidnaps more than 140 Kurdish schoolboys in Syria, forcing them to take lessons in radical Islamic theology, according to London-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
June 9-11, 2014 - ISIS takes control of Mosul and Tikrit.
June 21, 2014 - ISIS takes control of Al-Qaim, a town on the border with Syria, as well as three other Iraqi towns.
June 28, 2014 - Iraqi Kurdistan restricts border crossings into the region for refugees.
June 29, 2014 - ISIS announces the creation of a caliphate (Islamic state) that erases all state borders, making Baghdadi the self-declared authority over the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims. The group also announces a name change to the Islamic State (IS).
