Why ISIS is winning, and how its foes can reverse that success
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The fight against ISIS
Iraqi Sunni men presented as former jihadists fighting alongside ISIS who defected to join Iraq government forces take position in Amriyat al-Falluja, in Iraq's Anbar province, on May 26, 2015.
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A man from Lancashire who encouraged Islamic extremists to wage jihad in the West, including targeting Prince George and injecting poison in to supermarket ice-cream, has been convicted today (31 May).
Husnain Rashid, 32, posted messages online glorifying successful terrorist atrocities committed by others while encouraging and inciting his readers to plan and commit attacks.
One of his posts included a photograph of Prince George, along with the address of his school, a black silhouette of a jihad fighter and the message ìeven the royal family will not be left aloneî.
His common theme was that attacks could be carried out by one individual acting alone. Rashid suggested perpetrators had the option of using poisons, vehicles, weapons, bombs, chemicals or knives. Rashid uploaded terrorist material to an online library he created with the goal of helping others plan an attack.
He also planned to travel to Turkey and Syria with the intention of fighting in Daesh-controlled territories. He contacted individuals he believed to be in Daesh territory, seeking advice on how to reach Syria and how to obtain the required authorisation necessary to join a fighting group.
Rashid provided one individual who had travelled to Syria and was known online as ìRepunzelî, with information about methods of shooting down aircraft and jamming missile systems.
All the offences relate to Rashidís activities online between October 2016 and his arrest in November 2017.
Rashidís trial started on 23 May at Woolwich Crown Court but he changed his plea to guilty on four counts on 31 May. He will be sentenced on 28 June.
Sue Hemming from the CPS said: ìHusnain Rashid is an extremist who not only sought to encourage others to commit attacks on targets in the West but was planning to travel aboard so he could fight himself.
ìHe tried to argue that he had not done anything illegal but with the overwhelming weight of evidence against him he changed his plea to guilty.
ìThe judge will now deci
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(FILES) This image grab taken from a propaganda video released on July 5, 2014 by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The Russian army on June 16, 2017 said it hit Islamic State leaders in an airstrike in Syria last month and was seeking to verify whether IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed. In a statement, the army said Sukhoi warplanes carried out a 10-minute night-time strike on May 28 at a location near Raqa, where IS leaders had gathered to plan a pullout by militants from the group's stronghold.
/ AFP PHOTO / AL-FURQAN MEDIA / --/AFP/Getty Images
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—
It’s been exactly a year since the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria began its rampage through northern Iraq, seizing Mosul and Tikrit in short order as Iraqi security forces fled south. The group has proved its resilience since, despite thousands of coalition airstrikes and multiple battlefronts across a huge area.
ISIS’ most recent successes have come hundreds of miles apart.
Its capture of Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria can be explained by its tactics and structure, the weakness or exhaustion of opponents and the support or acquiescence among enough Sunnis in both countries. It may also have benefited, according to some analysts, from cynical power plays in Baghdad.
Even so, taking Ramadi and holding it are two different things. Evidence from previous battles suggests that ISIS doesn’t do defense as well as offense, and it is still vastly outnumbered by Iraqi forces. But the longer ISIS fighters are entrenched anywhere, the more difficult they are to expel, and the Iraqi Security Forces clearly aren’t capable of the task alone.
In Syria, the seizure of Palmyra gives ISIS access to the main roads to Homs and Damascus and nearby gas fields. It also confirms a shift by ISIS to focus on territory held by the regime of Bashar al-Assad in western and central Syria after a series of defeats at the hands of Kurdish forces supported by coalition airpower in the north.
‘Shock and awe’
The term was coined in 2003 to describe the technological power of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. But it can equally be applied to the way ISIS behaves on the battlefield, striking the enemy with massive explosive force.
Back in February, Kurdish commanders near Mosul told CNN how ISIS had sent more than a dozen fuel tankers converted into massive vehicle-borne suicide bombs against their positions. A similar tactic was used to break the resistance of Iraqi security forces in Ramadi.
Michael Knights, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who has spent much time in Iraq, says it’s “unsurprising that the ISF in Ramadi finally cracked when struck with a hammer blow – namely, 28 suicide car bombs in three days, including at least six massive 15-ton armored truck bombs in a single attack.”
There were also rumors that thousands of ISIS fighters had come to Ramadi from Syria, likely spread by ISIS’ adept use of social media to sow fear.
There is another psychological dimension to ISIS’ threat: Enemy soldiers know that they will be killed in cold blood if captured – probably in gruesome fashion. At Tikrit last June, around Hit earlier this year, in Palmyra in Syria last week, enemy soldiers and other adversaries have been dealt with mercilessly. Summary executions – en masse – are part of its mode of warfare. After seizing a Syrian military base near Raqqa last July, it beheaded dozens of Syrian soldiers, posting videos of the barbarity.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, it has now begun a similar reign of terror around Palmyra, executing hundreds of captured soldiers and regime sympathizers.
A new style of warfare
Military analysts have been impressed by ISIS’ military tactics and flexibility. One senior Kurdish commander told CNN earlier this year that it was a “formidable” enemy that demanded respect. It has commanders with experience and local knowledge who served in Saddam Hussein’s military and others who have fought in Chechnya and Afghanistan.
ISIS has perfected the art of “misleading” the enemy, with complex diversionary attacks and mixed signals about its intentions pulling enemies this way and that. As it prepared to attack Ramadi, it also began offensive operations around Baiji and north of Baghdad, deterring or delaying reinforcement of Ramadi by the ISF.
Few analysts expect ISIS to launch an attack on Baghdad: It knows that its numbers and the capital’s vast Shia population would make it a mission impossible. But a devastating campaign of suicide bombings and attacks on the fringes of the city (around Abu Ghraib, for example) would further tie down Iraqi forces.
Turkish analyst Metin Gurcan has noted ISIS’ “fluid and decentralized command and control structure; novel hybrid military tactics blending conventional warfare with terrorist tactics, [and] effective use of armored platforms in offensive operations.”
It has recently used those tactics in central Syria, beginning with insurgent-style ambushes of government troops, probing weaknesses and killing captives. Then, in mid-May, it launched a more conventional offensive to take territory.
ISIS is also more difficult to target because its units are very small and swift. Gurcan says it frequently deploys “eight to 10 men teams carrying out building-by-building, block-by-block clear and hold operations in urban terrain.”
In Iraq and Syria, ISIS is one of the most disciplined players on the battlefield. Its opponents include shifting coalitions of Syrian rebel factions, a Syrian military that is fraying in its fourth year of war and a hollowed-out Iraqi army.
ISIS appears to have calculated that exhaustion and desertion in the Syrian armed forces makes this the ideal time to focus on regime targets rather than a war of attrition with Kurds in the northeast and fratricidal battles against other jihadist groups such as Al Nusra. While there is no indication that the Syrian military is about to be overwhelmed, it is stretched. The regime has moved to crack down on draft-dodging and compensate families of soldiers killed in action. It is also more reliant than before on the Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah and Iranian support.
The Iraq advantage
In Iraq, units tasked with defending Ramadi had a vast numerical advantage over ISIS. But the evidence suggests the mix of forces – police, army and tribal militia – was poorly led, suffering from low morale and in some instances poorly equipped.
“In the 11 months since Mosul fell, only a tiny number of new local forces have been raised in Ramadi – a weak brigade of 2,000 federal police and a new 1,000-strong unit of tribal paramilitaries,” says Michael Knights.
Sunni tribal fighters had the motivation to defend Ramadi but were not well integrated with other units and lacked the sort of anti-tank weapons needed to deal with ISIS truck bombs. The Sunni tribes have spent a year pleading for more weapons from the federal government – to little avail, they say, despite repeated promises.
To some observers, the failure to provide weapons to Sunni militia was no accident. Simply put, they say, some Shia politicians were not concerned about Ramadi falling because it posed no threat to the Shia heartland. Nor did they want to see Sunni tribes turned into effective fighting units. Winning back Ramadi would then depend on deploying Shia militia known as Popular Mobilization Units, something Prime Minister Abadi had tried to avoid.
“The shock caused by the fall of Ramadi helped to provide the last push in ending the U.S. and Abadi’s resistance to the reflagging of the militias under the banner of Iraq’s security forces while keeping [their] structure intact,” according to Middle East Briefing.
That is exactly what is happening: the Shia militia is taking the leading role in encircling Ramadi as well as preparing to evict ISIS from the city of Baiji and its nearby refinery farther north.
But ISIS trades on the distrust among Iraqi Sunnis toward the government in Baghdad.
The fact that tens of thousands of Sunni civilians have fled Ramadi for an uncertain fate in searing temperatures is a good indication that most are terrified of ISIS. But at the same time, some Sunni tribes are equivocal about fighting for Iraq.
Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister, Saleh al-Mutlaq, who is himself a Sunni, told CNN on Monday: “What is after that? Are they going to live in an area which is going to rebuild again? Is there going to be a reconciliation? Are they going to be included in the government?”
U.S. policymakers see the same dilemma. As one senior U.S. official put it this week: “The rapid integration of the Sunni tribes into the fight alongside other Iraqi forces is essential as they will be the most invested in fighting for their areas.”
ISIS can still govern
Despite hundreds of airstrikes on its military infrastructure, ISIS continues to function as a rudimentary government in places such as Mosul and Tal Afar in Iraq, and Raqqa in Syria. It provides security – on its terms – and basic services, and has shown itself capable of raising money to finance them. It constantly posts videos of “life as normal” in places such as Mosul: well-ordered streets, markets functioning, hospitals open. The reality is surely less rosy, but a year after falling to ISIS, Mosul still has more than a million residents.
ISIS’ control of oil and gas fields in Syria and Iraq has been degraded by airstrikes, but it continues to seize energy sources, most recently the Syrian gas fields of al-Hil and al-Ark, in addition to nearby phosphate mines. It has also developed a lucrative trade in antiquities through the black market.
ISIS has also concentrated its advances on the upper Euphrates and Tigris rivers and now controls huge tracts of both rivers – critical resources for Iraq and Syria. If ISIS is serious about becoming a self-sustaining state, access to water is vital. So is control over dams and locks as a tool of war. By draining the Euphrates near Ramadi this week, ISIS has opened up new attack routes to the east – provoking a renewed exodus of civilians.
ISIS is also able to leverage its hold on territory in Syria and Iraq because it can exploit different enemies with different goals, and move fighters and supplies across international borders. In September, it lost the Rabia crossing between Syria and Iraq north of Mosul, but it has compensated by tightening its grip over Anbar and taking the last border post with Iraq still held by the Syrian government at al-Tanf.
Jessica McFale of the Institute for the Study of War writes that even if the Iraqis eventually evict ISIS from Mosul (surely a distant goal), “ISIS will constitute a permanent threat to Mosul if its dominion over the Jazeera desert in western Iraq persists. This outcome is guaranteed while ISIS controls eastern Syria.”
But ISIS is vulnerable on defense
ISIS’ desire to attack, even when it’s defending gains, might yet be its Achilles’ heel. It has thrown fighters into futile situations, such as around Kobani in Syria last year and at Eski Mosul in January, even when the odds are heavily stacked against it. But on other occasions – notably in Tikrit – it has ultimately retreated to save manpower, using snipers, dozens of IEDs and barriers such as downed bridges, trenches and berms to slow the enemy’s advance.
Michael Knights says ISIS suffers from what he calls “chronic tactical restlessness,” an almost pathological need to take the initiative and attack the enemy, even when – as in Kurdish regions earlier this year – success was highly unlikely.
Metin Gurcan, writing in Al-Monitor, says that ISIS has so far benefited from the arm’s-length coordination of airstrikes and major ground operations. He recommends “close air support that can only be provided by intense cooperation between ground troops and air units.” But that would entail risk and commitment that has so far been avoided.
When ISIS units advanced rapidly through Iraq a year ago, they seized thousands of square kilometers in Kurdish areas they were ultimately unable to hold. Given the number of ISIS fighters and their vast geographical spread in Iraq and Syria, the group is vulnerable to overreach It could have its lines of communications cut and its holdings divided, especially since its ambitious move into central Syria amid the more complex mosaic of factions there.
Even if higher estimates of ISIS fighting strength are accepted – around 100,000 according to some Iraqi observers – it is a huge area to hold and govern.
If the real number is much lower, the job seems unsustainable. Without better intelligence on the ground, it’s difficult to estimate with confidence how many fighters ISIS has and their different motives for fighting, how many have been killed and how quickly they are being replaced.
U.S. officials say some 13,000 ISIS fighters have been killed by airstrikes since August out of a force of some 30,000. Other observers say it’s implausible the group could have lost nearly half of its strength and still be so effective across such a huge area.
ISIS now has a new challenge to factor in. Other jihadist groups in Syria, such as Jabhat al Nusra and Ansar al Islam, have essentially declared war on it in northern Aleppo. Ansar al Islam, in a statement issued this week, said that if there was no “decisive and real position to deter their aggression, then it is the beginning of the end.”
ISIS’ leadership is still determined to expand its caliphate in Iraq and Syria, seeing it as a step toward an even greater regional presence. It frequently talks of “remaining and expanding” in its publications. But it is fighting from the suburbs of Baghdad to the fringes of Damascus, on Syria’s borders with Turkey and Lebanon. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS now controls some 95,000 square kilometers in Syria.
Location, location …
And its credibility rests with holding cities. A Caliphate that includes Mosul, Raqqa, Ramadi and Palmyra demands attention in a way that a Caliphate limited to the Anbar desert does not. And holding and administering cities, unless their inhabitants leave or are expelled, takes a lot of resources.
But the same challenge confronts its opponents. Even if Ramadi can be retaken – and there’s little progress to report so far – persuading the displaced to return home and providing governance and services is a huge challenge, one readily acknowledged by President Barack Obama’s special envoy, Gen. John Allen.
ISIS has a very deliberate policy of wrecking the places from which it retreats. But if this challenge is not met, ISIS would soon be back.
Wounded passengers are treated following a suicide bombing at the Brussels Airport on March 22, 2016. The attacks on the airport and a subway killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. ISIS claims its "fighters" launched the attacks in the Belgian capital.
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Syrians gather at the site of a double car bomb attack in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the Homs, Syria, on February 21, 2016. Multiple attacks in Homs and southern Damascus kill at least 122 and injure scores, according to the state-run SANA news agency. ISIS claimed responsibility.
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Syrian pro-government forces gather at the site of a deadly triple bombing Sunday, January 31, in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeynab. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement circulating online from supporters of the terrorist group.
Investigators check the scene of a mosque attack Friday, November 27, in northern Bangladesh's Bogra district. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack that left at least one person dead and three more wounded.
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Wounded people are helped outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris following a series of coordinated attacks in the city on Friday, November 13. The militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds more.
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Bilal Hussein/AP
Emergency personnel and civilians gather at the site of a twin suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, November 12. The bombings killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 200 more. ISIS appeared to claim responsibility in a statement posted on social media.
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Bram Janssen/AP
Smoke rises over the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on November 12. Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by a U.S.-led air campaign, retook the strategic town, which ISIS militants overran last year. ISIS wants to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.
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Syrian government troops walk inside the Kweiras air base on Wednesday, November 11, after they broke a siege imposed by ISIS militants.
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Members of the Egyptian military approach the wreckage of a Russian passenger plane Sunday, November 1, in Hassana, Egypt. The plane crashed the day before, killing all 224 people on board. ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but the group's claim wasn't immediately verified.
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An explosion rocks Kobani, Syria, during a reported car bomb attack by ISIS militants on Tuesday, October 20.
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Shiite fighters, fighting alongside Iraqi government forces, fire a rocket at ISIS militants as they advance toward the center of Baiji, Iraq, on Monday, October 19.
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Smoke rises above a damaged building in Ramadi, Iraq, following a coalition airstrike against ISIS positions on Saturday, August 15.
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Iraqi men look at damage following a bomb explosion that targeted a vegetable market in Baghdad on Thursday, August 13. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
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From ISIS
In this image taken from social media, an ISIS fighter holds the group's flag after the militant group overran the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn on Thursday, August 6, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. ISIS uses modern tools such as social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters are destroying holy sites and valuable antiquities even as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam.
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From ISIS
An ISIS fighter poses with spoils purportedly taken after capturing the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn.
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AP
Smoke rises as Iraqi security forces bomb ISIS positions in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi, Iraq, on August 6.
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Buildings reduced to piles of debris can be seen in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi on August 6.
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The governor of the Asir region in Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz, left, visits a man who was wounded in a suicide bombing attack on a mosque in Abha, Saudi Arabia, on August 6. ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosion, which killed at least 13 people and injured nine others.
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Saudi officials and investigators check the inside of the mosque on August 6.
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Mourners in Gaziantep, Turkey, grieve over a coffin Tuesday, July 21, during a funeral ceremony for the victims of a suspected ISIS suicide bomb attack. That bombing killed at least 31 people in Suruc, a Turkish town that borders Syria. Turkish authorities blamed ISIS for the attack.
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Protesters in Istanbul carry anti-ISIS banners and flags to show support for victims of the Suruc suicide blast during a demonstration on Monday, July 20.
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People in Ashmoun, Egypt, carry the coffin for 1st Lt. Mohammed Ashraf, who was killed when the ISIS militant group attacked Egyptian military checkpoints on Wednesday, July 1. At least 17 soldiers were reportedly killed, and 30 were injured.
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Syrians wait near the Turkish border during clashes between ISIS and Kurdish armed groups in Kobani, Syria, on Thursday, June 25. The photo was taken in Sanliurfa, Turkey. ISIS militants disguised as Kurdish security forces infiltrated Kobani on Thursday and killed "many civilians," said a spokesman for the Kurds in Kobani.
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Residents examine a damaged mosque after an Iraqi Air Force bombing in the ISIS-seized city of Falluja, Iraq, on Sunday, May 31. At least six were killed and nine others wounded during the bombing.
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People search through debris after an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, May 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to tweets from ISIS supporters, which included a formal statement from ISIS detailing the operation.
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Iraqi soldiers fire their weapons toward ISIS group positions in the Garma district, west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on Sunday, April 26. Pro-government forces said they had recently made advances on areas held by Islamist jihadists.
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A member of Afghanistan's security forces stands at the site where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Saturday, April 18. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others, a public health spokesman said.
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Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18.
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Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.
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Yazidis embrace after being released by ISIS south of Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 8. ISIS released more than 200 Yazidis, a minority group whose members were killed, captured and displaced when the Islamist terror organization overtook their towns in northern Iraq last summer, officials said.
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Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.
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A Yazidi woman mourns for the death of her husband and children by ISIS after being released south of Kirkuk on April 8. ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts.
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People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.
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On April 1, Shiite militiamen celebrate the retaking of Tikrit, which had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city.
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Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.
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The parents of 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam react at the family's home in the East Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov on Tuesday, March 10. ISIS released a video purportedly showing a young boy executing Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent who ISIS claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. Musallam's family told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.
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Iraqi Shiite fighters cover their ears as a rocket is launched during a clash with ISIS militants in the town of Al-Alam, Iraq, on Monday, March 9.
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Displaced Assyrian women who fled their homes due to ISIS attacks pray at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, March 1. ISIS militants abducted at least 220 Assyrians in Syria.
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Safi al-Kasasbeh, right, receives condolences from tribal leaders at his home village near Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday, February 4. Al-Kasasbeh's son, Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive in a video that was recently released by ISIS militants. Jordan is one of a handful of Middle Eastern nations taking part in the U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS.
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A Kurdish marksman looks over a destroyed area of Kobani on Friday, January 30, after the city had been liberated from the ISIS militant group. The Syrian city, also known as Ayn al-Arab, had been under assault by ISIS since mid-September.
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Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.
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Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.
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Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, reacts during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, January 23. ISIS would later kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.
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ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.
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An elderly Yazidi man arrives in Kirkuk after being released by ISIS on Saturday, January 17. The militant group released about 200 Yazidis who were held captive for five months in Iraq. Almost all of the freed prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect, Kurdish officials said.
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Smoke billows behind an ISIS sign during an Iraqi military operation to regain control of the town of Sadiyah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, November 25.
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Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
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A picture taken from Turkey shows smoke rising after ISIS militants fired mortar shells toward an area controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Monday, November 3.
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Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.
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ISIS militants stand near the site of an airstrike near the Turkey-Syria border on Thursday, October 23. The United States and several Arab nations have been bombing ISIS targets in Syria to take out the militant group's ability to command, train and resupply its fighters.
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Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.
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Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.
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Cundi Minaz, a female Kurdish fighter, is buried in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, October 14. Minaz was reportedly killed during clashes with ISIS militants in nearby Kobani.
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Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.
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Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6.
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A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was wounded in a battle with ISIS is wheeled to the Zakho Emergency Hospital in Duhuk, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 30.
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Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.
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A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.
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A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.
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Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS militant positions from their position on the top of Mount Zardak, east of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 9.
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Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.
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Aziza Hamid, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, cries for her father while she and some other Yazidi people are flown to safety Monday, August 11, after a dramatic rescue operation at Iraq's Mount Sinjar. A CNN crew was on the flight, which took diapers, milk, water and food to the site where as many as 70,000 people were trapped by ISIS. But only a few of them were able to fly back on the helicopter with the Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
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Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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A Syrian rebel fighter lies on a stretcher at a makeshift hospital in Douma, Syria, on Wednesday, July 9. He was reportedly injured while fighting ISIS militants.
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10.
