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The Islamic State of Iraq ( ISI; Arabic: دولة العراق الإسلامية Dawlat al-ʿIrāq al-ʾIslāmiyyah) was a Salafi jihadist militant organization that fought the forces of the U.S.-led coalition during the Iraqi insurgency. The organization aimed to overthrow the Iraqi federal government and establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law in Iraq .
- Map of the Islamic State of Iraq and its provinces on 7th of April, 2007
- Al-Qaeda
- 15 October 2006 – 8 April 2013
- Overview
- What is the Islamic State fighting for?
- Who started and led the Islamic State?
The Islamic State, or ISIS, is a militant organization that emerged as an offshoot of al Qaeda in 2014. It quickly took control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, raising its black flag in victory and declaring the creation of a caliphate and imposing strict Islamic rule.
The group is sometimes also referred to as ISIL — for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — or by its Arabic acronym, Daesh.
It is largely made up of Sunni militants from Iraq and Syria but has also drawn thousands of fighters from across the Muslim world and Europe.
Its tactics — including beheadings, the taking of slaves and bans on “un-Islamic” behavior such as music and smoking — are so brutal that it was even disowned by al Qaeda.
The militants' goal is an ultra-conservative caliphate that strictly enforces Shariah, or Islamic, law.
ISIS was founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi.
He first led al Qaeda in Iraq, transforming it into an effective and organized fighting force. The group changed its name in April 2013, signaling its broader ambition of establishing a caliphate extending across Iraq and Syria.
In June 2014, ISIS published a manifesto purporting to trace al-Baghdadi's lineage directly back to the Prophet Muhammad.
Russia believes one of its airstrikes may have killed al-Baghdadi in May 2017. However, that has never been confirmed.
The group’s director of external operations, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List as the man most likely to cause harm in the West.
Counterterrorism officials have said that al-Adnani most likely "greenlighted" the deadly Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015 that killed 130.
- Rachel Elbaum
Jul 10, 2017 · IS: The shortened “IS” simply means “Islamic State.” In 2014, the militant group announced they were officially calling themselves IS because their goals for an Islamic state reached...
May 31, 2022 · ISIS is a Sunni jihadist group that calls itself a caliphate and claims religious authority over all Muslims. RAND experts have analyzed ISIS's financing, management, organization, social media use, and the instability that spawned it in the Middle East.
Therefore, the acronym ISIL is the more-accurate name, as it recognizes these areas that the group affects and targets, while ISIS refers exclusively to Iraq and Syria. The tendency to call the group ISIS arose as they became active militants in the Syrian civil war in 2012.
Dec 2, 2015 · 2 December 2015. AP. The jihadist group Islamic State (IS) burst on to the international scene in 2014 when it seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. It has become notorious...
2 days ago · Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), transnational Sunni insurgent group operating primarily in western Iraq and eastern Syria. First appearing under the name ISIL in April 2013, the group launched an offensive in early 2014 that drove Iraqi government forces out of key western cities, while in Syria it fought both government forces and ...
