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.
PHOTO:
Ketevan Kardava/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Yemenis check the scene of a car bomb attack Sunday, December 6, in Aden, Yemen. Aden Gov. Jaafar Saad and six bodyguards died in the attack, for which the terror group ISIS claimed responsibility.
PHOTO:
Wael Qubady/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
YOAN VALAT/EPA/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Bilal Hussein/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Bram Janssen/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrian government troops walk inside the Kweiras air base on Wednesday, November 11, after they broke a siege imposed by ISIS militants.
PHOTO:
SANA/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Maxim Grigoriev/Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An explosion rocks Kobani, Syria, during a reported car bomb attack by ISIS militants on Tuesday, October 20.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke rises above a damaged building in Ramadi, Iraq, following a coalition airstrike against ISIS positions on Saturday, August 15.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
From ISIS
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
An ISIS fighter poses with spoils purportedly taken after capturing the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn.
PHOTO:
From ISIS
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Smoke rises as Iraqi security forces bomb ISIS positions in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi, Iraq, on August 6.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Buildings reduced to piles of debris can be seen in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi on August 6.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Saudi Press Agency/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Saudi officials and investigators check the inside of the mosque on August 6.
PHOTO:
Saudi Press Agency/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Ashour Abosalm/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Halil Fidan/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Sami Jawad/Xinhua/SIPA
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
EPA/STR/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Stringer/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18.
PHOTO:
Stringer/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.
PHOTO:
Ali Mohammed/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Ali Mukarrem Garip/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.
PHOTO:
SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Feriq Ferec/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.
PHOTO:
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.
PHOTO:
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Ahmed Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Nasser Nasser/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.
PHOTO:
Rauf Maltas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Toru Hanai/Reuters/LANDOV
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.
PHOTO:
Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.
PHOTO:
Jake Simkin/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
ULAS YUNUS TOSUN/EPA/Landov
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.
PHOTO:
HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Gokhan Sahin/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.
PHOTO:
Lefteris Pitarakis/ap
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6.
PHOTO:
Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Hadi Mizban/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.
PHOTO:
MURAD SEZER/Reuters/Landov
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.
PHOTO:
BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.
PHOTO:
AHMED JADALLAH/Reuters/Landov
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.
PHOTO:
Khalid Mohammed/AP
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
Warzer Jaff/CNN
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.
PHOTO:
Emrah Yorulmaz/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.
PHOTO:
Mustafa Kerim/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.
PHOTO:
Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty mages
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
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.
PHOTO:
ABD DOUMANY/AFP/Getty Images
Photos: The ISIS terror threat
Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10.
PHOTO:
STRINGER/IRAQ/reuters/LANDOV
“My purpose here today is to assert in my judgment, (ISIS) is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians and Shiite Muslims,” he said, during a news conference at the State Department.
Kerry said that in 2014, ISIS trapped Yazidis, killed them, enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and girls, “selling them at auction, raping them at will and destroying the communities in which they had lived for countless generations,” executed Christians “solely for their faith” and also “forced Christian women and girls into slavery.”
“Without our intervention, it is clear that those people would have been slaughtered,” he said.
This is the first time that the United States has declared a genocide since Darfur in 2004.
The House of Representatives on Monday unanimously passed a resolution labeling the ISIS atrocities against Christian groups in Syria and Iraq “genocide,” a term the State Department had been reluctant to use about the attacks and mass murders by the terror group.
The genocide finding does not legally obligate the U.S. to take any particular action, but it could put pressure on the Obama administration to take more aggressive military action against ISIS. It could also give weight to calls by other lawmakers and humanitarian groups pushing the Obama administration to welcome more refugees into the United States.
The move, aimed at ramping up pressure on the Obama administration, appears to have worked.
The measure was non-binding, but both Republicans and Democrats in the House joined together 393-0 to back a “sense of Congress” saying the crimes committed against Christians, Yazidis and other ethnic and religious minorities in the region amount to war crimes and, in some cases, genocide.
Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, whose Nebraska district is home to the largest group of resettled Yazidis in the U.S., authored the resolution with California Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo.
During debate on Monday, Fortenberry noted it was a rare instance of an issue that has “risen above the petty and difficult differences we often work out on the floor of the House of Representatives.”
Under a deadline set by Congress, the State Department had until Thursday to formally to decide whether it would issue a comprehensive genocide designation.
Kerry, though, had previously alluded to the possibility that the actions of ISIS, also know as ISIL, were genocide.
“ISIL’s campaign of terror against the innocent, including the Yazidi and Christian minorities, and its grotesque targeted acts of violence, show all the warning signs of genocide,” Kerry said in August 2014. “For anyone who needed a wakeup call, this is it.”
Fortenberry praised the State Department for its decision Thursday.
“I commend Secretary Kerry and the State Department for making this important designation. The genocide against Christians, Yazidis and others is not only a grave injustice to theses ancient faith communities – it is an assault on human dignity and an attack on civilization itself,” he said. “The United States has now spoken with clarity and moral authority.”
But another congressional voice, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, criticized the administration for not taking action sooner.
“That it took so long for the administration to arrive at this conclusion, in the face of unspeakable human suffering, defies explanation,” Rubio, who until Tuesday was a GOP presidential candidate, said in a statement. “At long last the United States is no longer silent in the face of this evil, but it would be travesty if we were to mistakenly take solace in this designation, if the designation did not then yield some sort of action.”
Mirza Dinnayi, an Iraqi Yazidi activist who has been helping evacuate former Yazidi slaves of ISIS to be rehabilitated in Germany, welcomed Kerry’s announcement.
“I am very happy to hear that (the U.S.) will recognize the genocide of Yezidi and Christian minorities,” he told CNN in an email. “This is an important step to stop the suffering of the persecuted people under the control of the extremist islamic groups, specially ISIS. And this is also important for my community to trust the international community again, because we were left in the hands of Islamic State.”
He called on the State Department to push the U.N. to establish an international criminal court case on genocide against the Yazidis and Christians in Iraq and Syria.
“Furthermore,” he said, “it is necessary to give the minorities more support to be sure that (these) crimes will not happen again.”
A variety of activist and advocacy groups praised Kerry’s move Thursday.
An international center advocating against hate, terrorism and anti-Semitism was one to join the chorus.
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center applauds Secretary Kerry’s acknowledgement that Christians and Yazidis are targets of Genocide,” the organization said in a statement. “We reiterate our call that the U.S put these two groups at the front of the line for consideration for immigration to our country and to redouble our efforts to destroy ISIS.”
In Defense of Christians, a group that has heavily lobbied for recognizing what is happening as genocide, put out a statement from its president Toufic Baaklini.
“IDC extends our deepest gratitude to Secretary Kerry and to the Obama administration for carefully reviewing the overwhelming evidence of the genocide against Christians, Yazidis, Shia Muslims and other religious minorities and for proclaiming the irrefutable truth that the crimes they have suffered constitute genocide,” Baaklini said.
And the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, put out a statement of “appreciation.”
“For some time, the world has witnessed the deliberate and organized effort by ISIS to eliminate Christians from the Middle East. For the U.S. government to call this savagery by its proper name – genocide – is a welcome step in what must now be a more committed effort at bringing peace and security to that beleaguered land,” Wuerl said. “These words must now be translated into action.”
CNN’s Ivan Watson, Daniel Burke, Deirdre Walsh and Laura Koran contributed to this report.
