Islamic State

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام (Arabic)
Current military situation (4 October 2014)   Controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant   Controlled by other Syrian rebels   Controlled by Syrian government   Controlled by Iraqi government   Controlled by Syrian Kurds   Controlled by Iraqi Kurds
Dates of operation	8 April 2013–present
Active regions	Iraq Syria Lebanon
Ideology	Anti-Shiaism, Salafist jihadism Takfiri Wahhabism
Part of	al-Qaeda (October 2004–February 2014)
Battles and wars	Iraqi Insurgency Operation al-Shabah Al Anbar campaign (2013–2014) Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014)F Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014) Sinjar massacre Syrian Civil War 2013 Latakia offensive Syrian Kurdish–Islamist conflict Battle of Qalamoun Inter-rebel conflict in Syria Battle of Aleppo Deir ez-Zor clashes Battle of Arsal 2014 military intervention against ISIL 2014 U.S intervention in Iraq 2014 U.S-led intervention in Syria

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL /ˈaɪsəl/) also translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/; ad-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fīl-ʻIraq wa ash-Shām), also known by the Arabic acronym Daʿesh (داعش) and self-described as the Islamic State (IS; ad-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah) is a Sunni, extremist, unrecognized state in Iraq and Syria in the Middle East.

The group originated as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999. This group was the forerunner of Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). AQI took part in the Iraqi insurgency against US-led forces and their Iraqi allies following the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2006, it joined other Sunni insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council, which consolidated further into the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) shortly afterwards. At its height, the ISI enjoyed a significant presence in Al Anbar, Nineveh, Kirkuk and other areas, but in around 2008 its violent methods led to a backlash against it and a temporary decline.

In April 2013, the group changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. It grew significantly under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, gaining support in Iraq as a result of perceived economic and political discrimination against Iraqi Sunnis. After entering the Syrian Civil War, it established a large presence in the Syrian governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor and Aleppo. In June 2014, it had at least 4,000 fighters in its ranks in Iraq, and the CIA estimated in September 2014 that it had 20,000–31,500 fighters in Iraq and Syria. It had close links to al-Qaeda until February 2014 when, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with the group, reportedly for its brutality and "notorious intractability".

The group's original aim was to establish an Islamic state in the Sunni-majority regions of Iraq. Following its involvement in the Syrian Civil War, this expanded to include controlling Sunni-majority areas of Syria. It proclaimed a worldwide caliphate on 29 June 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—known by his supporters as Amir al-Mu'minin, Caliph Ibrahim—was named as its caliph, and the group was renamed the Islamic State. In its self-proclaimed status as a caliphate, it claims religious authority over all Muslims worldwide, and aims to bring most Muslim-inhabited regions of the world under its political control, beginning with the Levant region, which approximately covers Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Cyprus, and part of southern Turkey.

The group has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Israel, Turkey, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. The United Nations and Amnesty International have accused the group of grave human rights abuses and Amnesty International has found it guilty of ethnic cleansing on a historic scale. Muslims have criticized ISIL’s actions, authority and theological interpretations.

Names

The group has had a number of different names since it was formed, including some names that other groups use for it.

Index of names

Links are to names in "History of names".

• al-Dawlah ("the State")
• al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah ("the Islamic State")
• AQI: al-Qaeda in Iraq: Tanẓīm Qāʻidat al-Jihād fī Bilād al-Rāfidayn
• Daʿesh, Da-ish, Dāʻish, Daesh, Daish, Daash, Da'ash, Daas, Da'ish, Dā'ash, Daiish: various latinisations of the (داعش) acronym formed from al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām
• IS: Islamic State: al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah
• ISI: Islamic State of Iraq: Dawlat al-ʻIraq al-Islāmīyah
• ISIL: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant: al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām
• ISIS: Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (or Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham): al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām
• JTJ: Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād
• Mujahideen Shura Council
• QSIS: al-Qaeda Separatists in Iraq and Syria

History of names

• The group was founded in 1999 by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād, "The Organization of Monotheism and Jihad" (JTJ).
• In October 2004, al-Zarqawi swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden and changed the name of the group to Tanẓīm Qāʻidat al-Jihād fī Bilād al-Rāfidayn, "The Organization of Jihad's Base in the Country of the Two Rivers" or "The Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia", more commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
• Although the group has never called itself "al-Qaeda in Iraq", this name has frequently been used for it through its various incarnations, as Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād, Tanẓīm Qāʻidat al-Jihād fī Bilād al-Rāfidayn and—see below—the Mujahideen Shura Council, the Islamic State of Iraq, and ISIL/ISIS/Daʿesh.
• In January 2006, AQI merged with several other Iraqi insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council. Al-Zarqawi was killed in June 2006, after which the group's direction shifted again.
• On 12 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council merged with several more insurgent factions, and on 13 October the establishment of the Dawlat al-ʻIraq al-Islāmīyah, Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was announced. A cabinet was formed and Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi became ISI's figurehead emir, with the real power residing with the Egyptian Abu Ayyub al-Masri. Al-Baghdadi and al-Masri were both killed in a US–Iraqi operation in April 2010; they were succeeded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the current leader of ISIL.
• On 8 April 2013, having expanded into Syria, the group adopted the name Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. These names are translations of the Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām, with the final word al-Shām providing a description of the Levant or Greater Syria. The translated names are frequently abbreviated as ISIL/Isil or as ISIS/Isis. The group has also used the names al-Dawlah ("the State") and al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah ("the Islamic State"). These are short-forms of the Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām.
• On 14 May 2014, the United States Department of State announced its decision to use "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) as the group's primary name. The debate over which of these acronyms should be used to designate the group, ISIL or ISIS, has been discussed by several commentators. The Washington Post concluded: "In the larger battlefield of copy style controversies, the distinction between ISIS or ISIL is not so great."
• The name Daʿesh—pronounced /ˈdaːʕiʃ/ and transliterated as "Dāʻesh", "Da-esh", "Dāʻish", or "Da-ish"—is used particularly by ISIL's detractors, such as those in Syria. It is based on the Arabic letters dāl, alif, ʻayn, and shīn, which form the acronym (داعش) of ISIL/ISIS's Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām. There are many different spellings of this acronym. ISIL considers the term "Dāʻish" derogatory and reportedly punishes with flogging those who use it in ISIL-controlled areas.
• On 29 June 2014, the group renamed itself as the Islamic State (IS) and claimed to be a caliphate (type of government).
• In late August 2014, a leading Islamic educational institution, Dar al-Ifta al-Misriyyah in Egypt, advised Muslims to stop calling the group "Islamic State" and instead refer to it as Al-Qaeda Separatists in Iraq and Syria or QSIS, because of the militant group's "un-Islamic character".

History

Foundation of the group (1999–2006)

Main articles: Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, and Mujahideen Shura Council (Iraq)

A screenshot from the 2004 hostage video, where Nick Berg was beheaded by al-Zarqawi's group.

Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, the Jordanian Salafi Jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his militant group Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, founded in 1999, achieved notoriety in the early stages of the Iraq insurgency, by not only carrying out attacks on coalition forces but conducting suicide attacks on civilian targets and beheading hostages.

Al-Zarqawi’s group grew in strength and attracted more fighters, and in October 2004 it officially pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, changing its name to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين, "Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia"), also known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Attacks by the group on civilians, the Iraqi Government and security forces continued to increase over the next two years—see list of major resistance attacks in Iraq. In a letter to al-Zarqawi in July 2005, al-Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War, which included expelling US forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authority—a caliphate—spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbors, and engaging in the Arab–Israeli conflict.

In January 2006, AQI merged with several smaller Iraqi insurgent groups under an umbrella organization called the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC). This was claimed by Brian Fishman in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science to be little more than a media exercise and an attempt to give the group a more Iraqi flavour and perhaps to distance al-Qaeda from some of al-Zarqawi's tactical errors, notably the 2005 bombings by AQI of three hotels in Amman. On 7 June, al-Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike and was succeeded as leader of the group by the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

On 12 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council joined four more insurgent factions and the representatives of a number of Iraqi Arab tribes, and together they swore the traditional Arab oath of allegiance known as Ḥilf al-Muṭayyabīn ("Oath of the Scented Ones"). During the ceremony, the participants swore to free Iraq's Sunnis from what they described as Shia and foreign oppression, and to further the name of Allah and restore Islam to glory.

On 13 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), comprising Iraq's six mostly Sunni Arab governorates, with Abu Omar al-Baghdadi being announced as the self-proclaimed state's Emir. Al-Masri was given the title of Minister of War within the ISI's ten-member cabinet. The declaration of statehood was met with hostile criticism, not only from ISI's jihadist rivals in Iraq, but from leading jihadist ideologues outside the country.

At its height the group enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Nineveh, Kirkuk, most of Salah ad Din, parts of Babil, Diyala and Baghdad, and claimed Baqubah as a capital city.

As Islamic State of Iraq (2006–2013)

Main article: Islamic State of Iraq

A joint US–Iraqi training exercise near Ramadi in November 2009. The Islamic State of Iraq had declared the city to be its capital.

According to a study compiled by US intelligence agencies in early 2007, the ISI—also known as AQI—planned to seize power in the central and western areas of the country and turn it into a Sunni Islamic state. However, by late 2007, violent and indiscriminate attacks directed by rogue AQI elements against Iraqi civilians had severely damaged its image and caused a loss of support among the population, thus isolating the group. In a major blow to AQI, many former Sunni militants who had previously fought alongside the group started to work with the US armed forces. The US troops surge supplied the military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed.

Al-Qaeda seemed to have lost its foothold in Iraq and appeared to be severely crippled. During 2008, a series of US and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out the AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens, such as the Diyala and Al Anbar governorates and the embattled capital of Baghdad, to the area of the northern city of Mosul, the latest of the Iraq War's major battlegrounds. By 2008, the ISI was describing itself as being in a state of "extraordinary crisis". ISI's violent attempts to govern its territory led to a backlash from Sunni Iraqis and other insurgent groups and a temporary decline in the group which was attributable to a number of factors, notably the Anbar Awakening.

In late 2009, the commander of the US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, stated that the ISI "has transformed significantly in the last two years. What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens". On 18 April 2010, the ISI's two top leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, were killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid near Tikrit. In a press conference in June 2010, General Odierno reported that 80% of the ISI's top 42 leaders, including recruiters and financiers, had been killed or captured, with only eight remaining at large. He said that they had been cut off from Al Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan, and that improved intelligence had enabled the successful mission in April that led to the killing of al-Masri and al-Baghdadi; in addition, the number of attacks and casualty figures in Iraq for the first five months of 2010 were the lowest since 2003.

On 16 May 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was appointed the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq. Al-Baghdadi replenished the group's leadership, many of whom had been killed or captured, by appointing former Ba'athist military and intelligence officers who had served during the Saddam Hussein regime. These men, nearly all of whom had spent time imprisoned by the US military, came to make up about one-third of Baghdadi's top 25 commanders. One of them was a former Colonel, Samir al-Khlifawi, also known as Haji Bakr, who became the overall military commander in charge of overseeing the group's operations.

In July 2012, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to the former strongholds from which US troops and their Sunni allies had driven them prior to the withdrawal of US troops. He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, which was aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons. Violence in Iraq began to escalate that month, and by July 2013 monthly fatalities had exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008. The Breaking the Walls campaign culminated in July 2013, with the group carrying out simultaneous raids on Taji and Abu Ghraib prison, freeing more than 500 prisoners, many of them veterans of the Iraqi insurgency.

As Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2013–2014)

Declaration and dispute with al-Nusra Front

Pair of armed anti-American insurgents from northern Iraq

In March 2011, protests began in Syria against the government of Bashar al-Assad. In the following months, violence between demonstrators and security forces led to a gradual militarisation of the conflict. In August 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi began sending Syrian and Iraqi ISI members experienced in guerilla warfare across the border into Syria in order to establish an organization inside the country. Led by a Syrian known as Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, this group began to recruit fighters and establish cells throughout the country. On 23 January 2012, the group announced its formation as Jabhat al-Nusra li Ahl as-Sham—Jabhat al-Nusra—more commonly known as al-Nusra Front. Al-Nusra grew rapidly into a capable fighting force with popular support among Syrians opposed to the Assad regime.

In April 2013, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement in which he announced that al-Nusra Front had been established, financed and supported by the Islamic State of Iraq and that the two groups were merging under the name "Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham". Al-Jawlani issued a statement denying the merger and complaining that neither he nor anyone else in al-Nusra's leadership had been consulted about it. In June 2013, Al Jazeera reported that it had obtained a letter written by al-Qaeda's leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, addressed to both leaders, in which he ruled against the merger, and appointed an emissary to oversee relations between them to put an end to tensions. In the same month, al-Baghdadi released an audio message rejecting al-Zawahiri's ruling and declaring that the merger was going ahead. In October 2013, al-Zawahiri ordered the disbanding of ISIL, putting al-Nusra Front in charge of jihadist efforts in Syria, but al-Baghdadi contested al-Zawahiri's ruling on the basis of Islamic jurisprudence, and his group continued to operate in Syria. In February 2014, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda disavowed any relations with ISIL.

According to journalist Sarah Birke, there are "significant differences" between al-Nusra Front and ISIL. While al-Nusra actively calls for the overthrow of the Assad government, ISIL "tends to be more focused on establishing its own rule on conquered territory". ISIL is "far more ruthless" in building an Islamic state, "carrying out sectarian attacks and imposing sharia law immediately". While al-Nusra has a "large contingent of foreign fighters", it is seen as a home-grown group by many Syrians; by contrast, ISIL fighters have been described as "foreign 'occupiers'" by many Syrian refugees. It has a strong presence in central and northern Syria, where it has instituted sharia in a number of towns. The group reportedly controlled the four border towns of Atmeh, al-Bab, Azaz and Jarablus, allowing it to control the entrance and exit from Syria into Turkey. Foreign fighters in Syria include Russian-speaking jihadists who were part of Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (JMA). In November 2013, the JMA's Chechen leader Abu Omar al-Shishani swore an oath of allegiance to al-Baghdadi; the group then split between those who followed al-Shishani in joining ISIL and those who continued to operate independently in the JMA under new leadership.

In May 2014, Ayman al-Zawahiri ordered al-Nusra Front to stop attacks on its rival ISIL. In June 2014, after continued fighting between the two groups, al-Nusra's branch in the Syrian town of al-Bukamal pledged allegiance to ISIL.

Conflicts with other groups

See also: Inter-rebel conflict during the Syrian Civil War

In January 2014, rebels affiliated with the Islamic Front and the US-trained Free Syrian Army launched an offensive against ISIL militants in and around the city of Aleppo in Syria.

Alleged relations with the Syrian government

See also: Reporting, censoring and propaganda in the Syrian Civil War

In January 2014, The Daily Telegraph said that Western intelligence sources believed that the Syrian government had made secret oil deals with ISIL and al-Nusra Front, and that the militants were funding their campaign by selling crude oil to the Assad regime from the oilfields which they had captured.

See also: 2014 ISIL beheading incidents, 2014 American-led intervention in Iraq, 2014 Iranian-led intervention in Iraq, 2014 military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014), and Turkish involvement in the 2014 military intervention against ISIL

As Islamic State (2014–present)

The Islamic State الدولة الإسلامية (Arabic) ad-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah
Flag Coat of arms of Islamic State Coat of arms
Motto: باقية وتتمدد (Arabic) "Bāqiyah wa-Tatamaddad" (transliteration) "Remaining and Expanding"
Areas controlled  (4 October 2014)   Territories claimed  (2006)   Rest of Iraq and Syria Note: map includes uninhabited areas.
Status	Unrecognized state
Capital	Ar-Raqqah, Syria
Government	Self-declared caliphate
• Emir, declared as caliph	Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, "Caliph Ibrahim"
• Field Commander	Abu Omar al-Shishani
• Spokesman	Abu Mohammad al-Adnani
Establishment
• Islamic state declared in Fallujah	3 January 2014
• Caliphate declared	29 June 2014
Time zone	UTC+3 (Arabia Standard Time)

On 29 June 2014, ISIL removed "Iraq and the Levant" from its name and began to refer to itself as the "Islamic State". It declared the territory under its control a new caliphate and named Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as its caliph. The declaration of a caliphate has been criticized and ridiculed by Muslim scholars and rival Islamists inside and outside the occupied territory.

Analysts observed that dropping the reference to region in its new name widened the group's scope, and terrorism analyst Laith Alkhouri concluded that after capturing many areas in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State felt that this was a suitable opportunity to take control of the global jihadist movement;

A week before it changed its name to the "Islamic State", ISIL captured the Trabil crossing on the Jordan–Iraq border, the only border crossing between the two countries. ISIL has received some public support in Jordan, albeit limited, partly owing to state repression there, but has undertaken a recruitment drive in Saudi Arabia, where tribes in the north are linked to those in western Iraq and eastern Syria.

In June and July 2014, Jordan and Saudi Arabia had moved troops to their borders with Iraq, after Iraq lost control of, or withdrew from, strategic crossing points that had then come under the control of the Islamic State. There was speculation that al-Maliki had ordered a withdrawal of troops from the Iraq–Saudi crossings in order "to increase pressure on Saudi Arabia and bring the threat of Isis over-running its borders as well".

In July 2014, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared support for the new caliphate and Caliph Ibrahim. In August, Shekau announced that Boko Haram had captured the Nigerian town of Gwoza. Shekau announced: "Thanks be to God who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it a state among the Islamic states". Boko Haram launched an offensive in Adamawa and Borno States in northeastern Nigeria in September, following the example of the Islamic State.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that the Islamic State had recruited more than 6,300 fighters in July 2014 alone, some of them coming from the Free Syrian Army.

In August 2014, the Islamic State captured Kurdish-controlled territory and massacred a large number of Yazidis. In response, the US launched an aerial bombing campaign against the Islamic State and a humanitarian mission to aid the Yazidis.

There have been many complaints of the Islamic State's use of death threats, torture and mutilation to compel conversion to Islam, executions of clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State, mass executions of prisoners of war and civilians, and sexual enslavement of Iraqi women and girls, predominantly from the minority Christian communities.

Raghad Hussein, the daughter of Saddam Hussein, now living in opulent asylum in Jordan, has publicly expressed support for the advance of the Islamic State in Iraq, reflecting the Ba'athist alliance of convenience with ISIL and its goal of return to power in Bagdad.

Notable members

Mugshot of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by US armed forces while in detention at Camp Bucca in 2004

Current known personnel (all use assumed names)

• Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Leader – declared emir of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2010 and caliph of the Islamic State on 29 June 2014)
• Abu Muslim al-Turkmani (Deputy Leader in Iraq)
• Abu Ali al-Anbari (Deputy Leader in Syria)
• Abu Mohammad al-Adnani (official spokesperson)
• Abu Omar al-Shishani (ISIL field commander in Syria)
• Abu Waheeb (ISIL militant in Al Anbar, Iraq)
• "Jihadi John" (ISIL member with British accent seen in beheading videos)
• Abu Yusaf (senior security commander)
• Abu Suleiman al-Naser (Minister of War, Islamic State of Iraq)

Former leaders

• Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (killed in 2006)
• Abu Ayyub al-Masri (killed in 2010)
• Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi (killed in 2010)

Other former personnel

• Abu Anas al-Shami (killed in 2004)
• Abu Azzam (killed in 2005)
• Abu Omar al-Kurdi (captured in 2005)
• Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi (captured in 2006)
• Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman (killed in 2006)
• Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi (captured in 2006)
• Abu Yaqub al-Masri (killed in 2007)
• Haitham al-Badri (killed in 2007)
• Khaled al-Mashhadani (captured in 2007)
• Mahir al-Zubaydi (killed in 2008)
• Mohamed Moumou (killed in 2008)
• Huthaifa al-Batawi (killed in 2011)

Designation as a terrorist organization

Country	Date	Authority	References
United Nations	18 October 2004	United Nations Security Council
European Union		EU Council by adopting the UN Terrorist List
United States	17 December 2004	United States Department of State
Australia	2 March 2005	Attorney-General for Australia
Canada	20 August 2012	Parliament of Canada
Turkey	30 October 2013	Grand National Assembly of Turkey
Saudi Arabia	7 March 2014	Royal decree of the King of Saudi Arabia
United Kingdom	20 June 2014	Home Secretary of the Home Office
Indonesia	1 August 2014	National Counter-terrorism Agency (id)
Israel	3 September 2014	Ministry of Defense, Israel

Many world leaders and government spokespeople have called ISIL terrorists without the formal designation process undertaken by the countries listed. Media sources worldwide have also called ISIL a terrorist organization.

The United Nations Security Council in Resolution 1267 (1999) designated al-Qaida as a terrorist organization and established al-Qaida Sanctions List to which it added al-Qaida in Iraq (now known as ISIL in UN documents) on 18 Oct. 2004 (amended on 2 Dec. 2004, 5 Mar. 2009, 13 Dec. 2011, 30 May 2013, 13 May 2014, 2 Jun. 2014). The UN Security Council also includes various ISIL leaders on the list. The European Union adopted the UN terrorist list and regularly updates its list to match the UN list.

Support

Foreign fighters

There are many foreign fighters in ISIL's ranks. In June 2014, The Economist reported that "ISIS may have up to 6,000 fighters in Iraq and 3,000–5,000 in Syria, including perhaps 3,000 foreigners; nearly a thousand are reported to hail from Chechnya and perhaps 500 or so more from France, Britain and elsewhere in Europe". Chechen leader Abu Omar al-Shishani, for example, was made commander of the northern sector of ISIL in Syria in 2013. According to The New York Times, in September 2014 there were more than 2,000 Europeans and 100 Americans among ISIL's foreign fighters. Foreign recruits are treated with less respect than Arabic-speaking Muslims by ISIL commanders, and if they lack otherwise useful skills they are placed in suicide units.

Allies

• Abu Sayyaf (Philippines, Malaysia)
• Boko Haram (Nigeria and surrounding countries)
• Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (Philippines)
• Jemaah Islamiyah (Southeast Asia)
• Ansar al-Sharia (Libya)
• Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia)
• Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem (Gaza Strip)
• Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (Egypt)
• Jund al-Khilafah (Algeria)
• Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan
• Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

Opposition

Opposition within Iraq, Lebanon and Syria

Iraq-based opponents

Iraqi Armed Forces

• Iraqi Shia militias
• Iraqi Turkmen Front

Sunni Iraqi Insurgents

• General Military Council for Iraqi Revolutionaries

Iraqi Kurdistan

Lebanon-based opponents

Lebanese Armed Forces

• Hezbollah

Syria-based opponents

Syrian Armed Forces / National Defence Force

• Ba'ath Brigades

Syrian Opposition

• Free Syrian Army
• Syria Revolutionaries Front
• Islamic Front
• Army of Mujahedeen

Syrian Kurdistan PKK/YPG

• Syriac Military Council
• Sutoro
• Local guerrillas

Multinational coalition opposition

—Military operations in or over Iraq and/or Syria – (US-led)—

NATO members:

• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• France
• Germany
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Spain
• Turkey (limited/pending)
• United Kingdom
• United States

CCASG members:

• Bahrain
• Jordan (pending GCC member)
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• UAE

Other

• Australia

—Supplying materiel to opposition forces within Iraq, Syria or Lebanon – (EU and/or NATO and partners)—

• Albania
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Republic of Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Finland
• Greece
• Hungary
• Poland

Other state opponents

Iran

Russia

Other non-state opponents

The Arab League issued a statement on ISIL in September 2014. al-Qaeda was originally the parent organization of ISIL, though they split in 2014. The leader of the al-Nusra Front, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, has been critical of ISIL. Ansar al-Islam The Kurdistan Workers Party has aided and fighters from the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran have fought against ISIL.

*Note: The opponents list is restricted to: (a) States and non-State actors with military operations past, present or pending against ISIL in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon; (b) States directly supplying weapons to ground forces fighting ISIL; or (c) transnational organizations coordinating or supporting such States.

Analysis

After significant setbacks for the group during the latter stages of the coalition forces' presence in Iraq, by late 2012 it was thought to have renewed its strength and to have more than doubled the number of its members to about 2,500, and since its formation in April 2013, ISIL grew rapidly in strength and influence in Iraq and Syria. Analysts have underlined the deliberate inflammation of sectarian conflict between Iraqi Shias and Sunnis during the Iraq War by various Sunni and Shia players as the root cause of ISIL's rise. The post-invasion policies of the international coalition forces have also been cited as a factor, with Fanar Haddad, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute, blaming the coalition forces during the Iraq War for "enshrining identity politics as the key marker of Iraqi politics".

By 2014, ISIL was increasingly being viewed as a militia rather than as a terrorist group. As major Iraqi cities fell to al-Baghdadi's cohorts in June 2014, Jessica Lewis, a former US army intelligence officer at the Institute for the Study of War, described ISIL as "not a terrorism problem anymore", but rather "an army on the move in Iraq and Syria, and they are taking terrain. They have shadow governments in and around Baghdad, and they have an aspirational goal to govern. I don't know whether they want to control Baghdad, or if they want to destroy the functions of the Iraqi state, but either way the outcome will be disastrous for Iraq." Lewis has called ISIL "an advanced military leadership". She said, "They have incredible command and control and they have a sophisticated reporting mechanism from the field that can relay tactics and directives up and down the line. They are well-financed, and they have big sources of manpower, not just the foreign fighters, but also prisoner escapees."

According to the Institute for the Study of War, ISIL's 2013 annual report reveals a metrics-driven military command, which is "a strong indication of a unified, coherent leadership structure that commands from the top down". Middle East Forum's Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi said, "They are highly skilled in urban guerrilla warfare while the new Iraqi Army simply lacks tactical competence." Seasoned observers point to systemic corruption within the Iraq Army, seeing it as little more than a system of patronage, and have attributed to this its spectacular collapse as ISIL and its allies took over large swaths of Iraq in June 2014.

While officials fear that ISIL may either inspire attacks in the United States by sympathizers or by those returning after joining ISIL, US intelligence agencies find there is no immediate threat or specific plots. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel sees an "imminent threat to every interest we have", but former top counterterrorism adviser Daniel Benjamin has derided such alarmist talk as a "farce" that panics the public.

Hillary Clinton has stated: "The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled."

Some news commentators such as the international newspaper columnist Gwynne Dyer and the results of a recent sampling of public opinion by NPR have advocated a strong but measured response to ISIL's recent provocative acts.

Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theorists in the Arab world have advanced rumors that the US is secretly behind the existence and emboldening of ISIL, as part of an attempt to further destabilize the Middle East. After such rumors became widespread, the US embassy in Lebanon issued an official statement denying the allegations, calling them a complete fabrication. Others are convinced that ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is an Israeli Mossad agent and actor called "Simon Elliot". The rumors claim that NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal this connection. Snowden's lawyer has called the story "a hoax".

Ideology and beliefs

ISIL is a Sunni extremist group. It follows an extreme anti-Western interpretation of Islam, promotes religious violence and regards those who do not agree with its interpretations as infidels or apostates. ISIL's aim is to establish a Salafist-oriented Islamist state in Iraq, Syria and other parts of the Levant.

ISIL's ideology originates in the branch of modern Islam that aims to return to the early days of Islam, rejecting later "innovations" in the religion which it believes corrupt its original spirit. It condemns later caliphates and the Ottoman Empire for deviating from what it calls pure Islam and hence has been attempting to establish its own caliphate. The use of violence to purify the community of unbelievers comes from the Wahhabi tradition. While ISIL is widely denounced by a broad range of Islamic clerics, it took political pressure to persuade Saudi clerics to issue a formal condemnation. Al-Qaeda-oriented clerics were much quicker to condemn the group.

ISIL's philosophy is well represented in the symbolism of its black flag, which first appeared as the flag of its former parent organization, al-Qaeda. The flag shows the seal of the Prophet Muhammad within a white circle, with the phrase above it, "There is no God but Allah", depicted on a black flag, the legendary battle flag of the Prophet Muhammad. Clearly such symbolism points to ISIL's belief that it represents no less than the restoration of the caliphate of early Islam, with all of the political, religious and eschatological ramifications that this would necessarily imply.

According to some observers, ISIL emerged from the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, the first post-Ottoman Islamist group dating back to the late 1920s in Egypt. It adheres to global jihadist principles and follows the hard-line ideology of al-Qaeda and many other modern-day jihadist groups.

Other sources trace the group's roots not to the Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood and the more mainstream jihadism of al-Qaeda, but to Wahhabism. The New York Times wrote:

For their guiding principles, the leaders of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, are open and clear about their almost exclusive commitment to the Wahhabi movement of Sunni Islam. The group circulates images of Wahhabi religious textbooks from Saudi Arabia in the schools it controls. Videos from the group’s territory have shown Wahhabi texts plastered on the sides of an official missionary van.

Bernard Haykel, describes Baghdadi's creed as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism," stating "For Al Qaeda, violence is a means to an ends; for ISIS, it is an end in itself." According to The New York Times, "All of the most influential jihadist theorists are criticizing the Islamic State as deviant, calling its self-proclaimed caliphate null and void" and denouncing it for its beheading of journalists and aid workers.

According to The Economist, dissidents in the ISIL capital of Ar-Raqqah report that "all 12 of the judges who now run its court system ... are Saudis". The destruction by ISIL in July 2014 of the tomb and shrine of the prophet Yunus—Jonah in Christianity—the 13th century mosque of Imam Yahya Abu al-Qassimin, the 14th century shrine of prophet Jerjis—St George to Christians—and attempted destruction of the Hadba minaret at the 12th century Great Mosque of Al-Nuri have been called "an unchecked outburst of extreme Wahhabism".

Other Saudi practices followed by the group include the establishment of a "religious police" to root out "vice" and enforce attendance at salat prayers, the widespread use of capital punishment, and the destruction of or conversion to other uses of all churches and non-Sunni mosques.

Salafists such as ISIL believe that only a legitimate authority can undertake the leadership of jihad, and that the first priority over other areas of combat, such as fighting non-Muslim countries, is the purification of Islamic society. For example, when it comes to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, since ISIL regards the Palestinian Sunni group Hamas as apostates who have no legitimate authority to lead jihad, it regards fighting Hamas as the first step toward confrontation with Israel.

Sunni critics, including Salafi and jihadist muftis such as Adnan al-Aroor and Abu Basir al-Tartusi, say that ISIL and related terrorist groups are not Sunnis, but modern-day Kharijites—Muslims who have stepped outside the mainstream of Islam—serving an imperial anti-Islamic agenda. Other critics of ISIL's brand of Sunni Islam include Salafists who previously publicly supported jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda, for example the Saudi government official Saleh Al-Fawzan, known for his extremist views, who claims that ISIL is a creation of "Zionists, Crusaders and Safavids", and the Jordanian-Palestinian writer Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, the former spiritual mentor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was released from prison in Jordan in June 2014 and accused ISIL for driving a wedge between Muslims.

Goals

Since 2004, the group's goal has been the foundation of an Islamic state in the Levant. Specifically, ISIL has sought the establishment of a caliphate, a type of Islamic state led by a group of religious authorities under a supreme leader—caliph—who is believed to be the successor to Muhammad.

In June 2014, ISIL published a document in which it claimed to have traced the lineage of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi back to Muhammad. That same month, ISIL removed "Iraq and the Levant" from its name and began to refer to itself as the Islamic State, declaring the territory that it occupied in Iraq and Syria a new caliphate and naming al-Baghdadi as its caliph. By declaring a caliphate, al-Baghdadi was demanding the allegiance of all devout Muslims according to Islamic jurisprudence—fiqh.

Shaykh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani al-Shami, spokesperson for ISIL, described the establishment of the caliphate as "a dream that lives in the depths of every Muslim believer" and "the abandoned obligation of the era", while ISIL stated: "The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the khilafah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas." ISIL thus rejects the political divisions established by Western powers at the end of World War I in the Sykes–Picot Agreement as it absorbs territory in Syria and Iraq.

ISIL's current goal is to consolidate the territorial gains it has made, to establish an Islamic state, and to expand its caliphate throughout the Levant region.

Territorial claims

  Areas controlled  (20 October 2014)

  Territories claimed  (2006)

  Rest of Iraq and Syria

Note: map includes uninhabited areas.

When the group announced the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq in 2006, it claimed authority over the Iraqi governorates of Baghdad, Al Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Salah al-Din, Nineveh, and parts of Babil. Following the expansion of the group into Syria in 2013 and the announcement of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the number of wilayah—provinces—which it claimed increased to 16. In addition to the seven Iraqi wilayah, the Syrian divisions, largely lying along existing provincial boundaries, are Al Barakah, Al Kheir, Ar-Raqqah, Al Badiya, Halab, Idlib, Hama, Damascus, and the Coast. After taking control of both sides of the border in mid-2014, ISIL created a new province incorporating Syrian territory around Albu Kamal and Iraqi territory around Qaim. This new wilayah was named al-Furat—"Euphrates" province. In Syria, ISIL's seat of power is in the Ar-Raqqah Governorate. Top ISIL leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, are known to have visited its provincial capital, Ar-Raqqah.

Governance

The group is headed and run by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, called caliph, with a cabinet of advisers. There are two deputy leaders, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani for Iraq and Abu Ali al-Anbari for Syria, and 12 local governors in Iraq and Syria. Beneath the governors are local councils on finance, leadership, military matters, legal matters—including decisions on executions—foreign fighters assistance, security, intelligence and media. In addition, a Shura council has the task of ensuring that all decisions made by the governors and councils comply with the group's interpretation of sharia.

Ar-Raqqah in Syria is the de facto capital of the Islamic State and is said to be a test case of ISIL governance. As of September 2014, governance in Ar-Raqqah has been under the total control of ISIL where it has rebuilt the structure of modern government in less than a year. Former government workers from the Assad regime maintain their jobs after pledging allegiance to ISIL. Institutions, restored and restructured, are providing services. The Ar-Raqqah dam continues to provide electricity and water. Foreign expertise supplements Syrian officials in running civilian institutions. Only the police and soldiers are ISIL fighters, who receive confiscated lodging previously owned by non-Sunnis and others who fled. Welfare services are provided, price controls established, and taxes imposed on the wealthy. ISIL runs a soft power program in the areas under its control in Iraq and Syria, which includes social services, religious lectures and da'wah—proselytizing—to local populations. It also performs public services such as repairing roads and maintaining the electricity supply.

Exporting oil from oilfields captured by ISIL brings in tens of millions of dollars. One US Treasury official has estimated that ISIL earns US$1 million a day from the export of oil. Much of the oil is sold illegally in Turkey. Dubai-based energy analysts have put the combined oil revenue from ISIL's Iraqi-Syrian production as high as US$3 million per day. ISIL also extracts wealth through taxation and extortion.

British security expert Frank Gardner has concluded that ISIL's prospects of maintaining control and rule are greater in 2014 than they were in 2006. Despite being as brutal as before, ISIL has become "well entrenched" among the population and is not likely to be dislodged by ineffective Syrian or Iraqi forces. It has replaced corrupt governance with functioning locally controlled authorities, services have been restored and there are adequate supplies of water and oil. With Western-backed intervention being unlikely, the group will "continue to hold their ground" and rule an area "the size of Pennsylvania for the foreseeable future", he said. Further solidifying ISIL rule is the control of wheat production, which is roughly 40% of Iraq's production. ISIL has maintained food production, crucial to governance and popular support.

Diktats, influences and pressures

In Mosul, ISIL has implemented a sharia school curriculum which bans teaching in art, music, national history, literature and Christianity. Although Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has never been taught in Iraqi schools, the subject has been banned from the school curriculum. Patriotic songs have been declared blasphemous, and orders have been given to remove certain pictures from school textbooks. Iraqi parents have largely boycotted schools in which the new curriculum has been introduced.

After capturing cities in Iraq, ISIL issued guidelines on how to wear clothes and veils. ISIL warned women in the city of Mosul to wear full-face veils or face severe punishment. The group also uses its two battalions of female fighters in Ar-Raqqah to enforce it's strict laws of individual conduct on women. A cleric told Reuters in Mosul that ISIL gunmen had ordered him to read out the warning in his mosque when worshippers gathered. ISIL also ordered the faces of both male and female mannequins to be covered in an order that also banned the use of naked mannequins. ISIL released 16 notes labeled "Contract of the City", a set of rules aimed at civilians in Nineveh. One rule stipulated that women should stay at home and not go outside unless necessary. Another rule said that stealing would be punished by amputation. In addition to banning the sale and use of alcohol—which is customary in Muslim culture—ISIL has banned the sale and use of cigarettes and hookah pipes. It has also banned "music and songs in cars, at parties, in shops and in public, as well as photographs of people in shop windows”.

Christians living in areas under ISIL control who want to remain in the "caliphate" face three options: converting to Islam, paying a religious levy, jizya, or death. "We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract – involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword", ISIL said. ISIL had already set similar rules for Christians in Ar-Raqqah, once one of Syria's more liberal cities.

Human rights abuses

In early September 2014, the United Nations Human Rights Council agreed to send a team to Iraq and Syria to investigate the abuses and killings being carried out by the ISIL on "an unimaginable scale". Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein of Jordan, who has taken over Navi Pillay's post as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged world leaders to step in to protect women and children suffering at the hands of ISIL militants, who he said were trying to create a "house of blood". He appealed to the international community to concentrate its efforts on ending the conflict in Iraq and Syria.

War crimes accusations and findings

In July 2014, the BBC reported the United Nations' chief investigator as stating: "Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) may be added to a list of war crimes suspects in Syria."

By June 2014, according to United Nations reports, ISIL had executed hundreds of prisoners of war and killed over 1,000 civilians.

In August 2014, the United Nations accused ISIL of committing "mass atrocities" and war crimes, including the mass execution of up to 250 Syrian Army soldiers near Tabqa Air base. Other known executions of military prisoners took place in Camp Speicher (1,095–1,700 Iraqi soldiers shot and "thousands" more "missing") and the Shaer gas field (200 Syrian soldiers shot).

Religious and minority group persecution

ISIL compels people in the areas it controls, under the penalty of death, torture or mutilation, to declare Islamic creed, and live according to its interpretation of Sunni Islam and sharia law. It directs violence against Shia Muslims, indigenous Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans in particular.

Amnesty International has found ISIL guilty of the ethnic cleansing of ethnic and religious minority groups in northern Iraq "on a historic scale". In a special report, it describes how ISIL has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". Among these people are Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shia, Shabak Shia, Yazidis, Kaka'i and Sabean Mandeans, who have lived together for centuries in Nineveh province, which is now heavily under ISIL's control.

Among the known massacres of religious and minority group civilians perpetrated by ISIL, there are those committed in the villages Quiniyeh (70–90 Yazidis killed), Hardan (60 Yazidis killed), Sinjar (200–500 Yazidis killed), Ramadi Jabal (60–70 Yazidis killed), Dhola (50 Yazidis killed), Khana Sor (100 Yazidis killed), Hardan (250–300 Yazidis killed), al-Shimal (dozens of Yazidis killed), Khocho (400 Yazidis killed and 1,000 abducted), Jadala (14 Yadizis killed) and Beshir (700 Shia Turkmen killed) and others committed near Mosul (670 Shia inmates of the Badush prison killed), in Tal Afar prison, Iraq (200 Yazidis killed for refusing conversion) and in the town of Ghraneij, Abu Haman and Kashkiyeh (700 members of the Al Sheitaat tribe in Syria killed for refusing to swear allegiance to ISIL). 5,000 Yazidis are estimated by the UN to have been murdered.

Treatment of civilians

During the Iraqi conflict in 2014, ISIL released dozens of videos showing its ill treatment of civilians, many of whom had apparently been targeted on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned of war crimes being committed in the Iraqi war zone, and disclosed one UN report of ISIL militants murdering Iraqi Army soldiers and 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul. The United Nations reported that in the 17 days from 5 to 22 June, ISIL killed more than 1,000 Iraqi civilians and injured more than 1,000. After ISIL released photographs of its fighters shooting scores of young men, the United Nations declared that cold-blooded "executions" by militants in northern Iraq almost certainly amounted to war crimes.

ISIL's advance in Iraq in mid-2014 was accompanied by continuing violence in Syria. On 29 May, ISIL raided a village in Syria and at least 15 civilians were killed, including, according to Human Rights Watch, at least six children. A hospital in the area confirmed that it had received 15 bodies on the same day. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that on 1 June, a 102-year-old man was killed along with his whole family in a village in Hama.

ISIL has recruited to its ranks Iraqi children, who can be seen with masks on their faces and guns in their hands patrolling the streets of Mosul.

Sexual violence and slavery allegations

See also: Islamic views on slavery and Ma malakat aymanukum

According to one report, ISIL's capture of Iraqi cities in June 2014 was accompanied by an upsurge in crimes against women, including kidnap and rape. The Guardian reported that ISIL's extremist agenda extended to women's bodies and that women living under their control were being captured and raped. Fighters are told that they are free to have sex and rape non-Muslim captive women. Hannaa Edwar, a leading women’s rights advocate in Baghdad who runs an NGO called Iraqi Al-Amal Association (IAA), said that none of her contacts in Mosul were able to confirm any cases of rape. However, another Baghdad-based women's rights activist, Basma al-Khateeb, said that a culture of violence existed in Iraq against women generally and felt sure that sexual violence against women was happening in Mosul involving not only ISIL but all armed groups.

During a meeting with Nouri al-Maliki, British Foreign Minister William Hague said with regard to ISIL: "Anyone glorifying, supporting or joining it should understand that they would be assisting a group responsible for kidnapping, torture, executions, rape and many other hideous crimes". According to Martin Williams in The Citizen, some hard-line Salafists apparently regard extramarital sex with multiple partners as a legitimate form of holy war and it is "difficult to reconcile this with a religion where some adherents insist that women must be covered from head to toe, with only a narrow slit for the eyes".

Haleh Esfandiari from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has highlighted the abuse of local women by ISIL militants after they have captured an area. "They usually take the older women to a makeshift slave market and try to sell them. The younger girls ... are raped or married off to fighters", she said, adding, "It's based on temporary marriages, and once these fighters have had sex with these young girls, they just pass them on to other fighters." Yazidi girls in Iraq allegedly raped by ISIL fighters have committed suicide by jumping to their death from Mount Sinjar, as described in a witness statement.

A United Nations report issued on 2 October 2014, based on 500 interviews with witnesses, said that ISIL took 450–500 women and girls to Iraq's Nineveh region in August where "150 unmarried girls and women, predominantly from the Yazidi and Christian communities, were reportedly transported to Syria, either to be given to ISIL fighters as a reward or to be sold as sex slaves". In mid-October, the UN confirmed that 5,000–7,000 Yazidi women and children had been abducted by ISIL and sold into slavery.

In the digital magazine Dabiq ISIL explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women.

Criticism of the Islamic State

The group has attracted widespread criticism internationally for its extremism, from governments, from Muslim communities, scholars and theologians, and from the United Nations and Amnesty International.

In late September 2014, 126 Islamic scholars from around the Muslim world signed an open letter to the Islamic State's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, explicitly rejecting and refuting his group's interpretations of the Qur'an and hadith to justify its actions. The letter rebukes the Islamic State for its execution of prisoners, describing the killings as "heinous war crimes" and its persecution of the Yazidis of Iraq as "abominable". It also accuses the group of instigating fitna—sedition—by instituting slavery under its rule in contravention of the anti-slavery consensus of the Islamic scholarly community. The scholars declared the Islamic State to be Khawarij, stating that its actions are "not jihad ... but rather, warmongering and criminality".

The group's declaration of a caliphate has been criticized and its legitimacy disputed by Middle Eastern governments, other jihadist groups, and Sunni Muslim theologians and historians. Qatar-based TV broadcaster and theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi stated: "[The] declaration issued by the Islamic State is void under sharia and has dangerous consequences for the Sunnis in Iraq and for the revolt in Syria", adding that the title of caliph can "only be given by the entire Muslim nation", not by a single group.

Two days after the beheading of Hervé Gourdel, hundreds of Muslims gathered in the Grand Mosque of Paris to show solidarity against the beheading. The protest was lead by the leader of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, Dalil Boubakeur, and was joined by thousands of other Muslims around the country under the slogan "Not in my name". French president François Hollande said Gourdel’s beheading was “cowardly” and “cruel,” and confirmed that airstrikes would continue against ISIL in Iraq. Hollande also called for three days of national mourning, with flags flown at half-mast throughout the country and said that security would be increased throughout Paris.

The Islamic State is mocked on social media websites such as Twitter and YouTube, with the use of hashtags, mock recruiting ads, fake news articles and YouTube videos. One parody, by a Palestinian TV satire show, is specifically mentioned as portraying the Islamic State as "buffoon-like hypocrites" and has had more than half a million views.

Criticism of the name "Islamic State"

No nation recognizes the group by the name "Islamic State", owing to the far-reaching political and religious authority which that name implies. The United Nations Security Council, the United States, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Russia, United Kingdom and other powers generally call the group "ISIL", while much of the Arab world and France use the Arabic acronym "Dāʻish".

When addressing the United Nations Security Council in September 2014, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott summarized these widespread objections thus: "To use this term [Islamic State] is to dignify a death cult; a death cult that, in declaring itself a caliphate, has declared war on the world". The group is very sensitive about its name. "They will cut your tongue out even if you call them Isis—you have to say 'Islamic State'", said a woman in ISIL-controlled Mosul.

As of mid-September 2014, prominent English-language news agencies, such as Reuters and the Associated Press, and media groups, including the BBC, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, began to adopt the name "Islamic State", which is the name predominantly used.

Propaganda and social media

File:Al-Hayat Media Center-english-logo.png

The logo of al-Hayat Media Center

ISIL is known for its effective use of propaganda. Its creation of a flag and coat of arms that have symbolic meaning for the Muslim world was clearly done with care.

In November 2006, shortly after the group's rebranding as the "Islamic State of Iraq", the group established the al-Furqan Institute for Media Production, which produces CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets, and web-related propaganda products. ISIL's main media outlet is the I'tisaam Media Foundation, which was formed in March 2013 and distributes through the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF). In 2014, ISIL established the al-Hayat Media Center, which targets a Western audience and produces material in English, German, Russian and French. In the same year it launched the Ajnad Media Foundation, which releases jihadist audio chants.

In July 2014, ISIL began publishing a digital magazine called Dabiq, in a number of different languages including English. According to the magazine, its name is taken from the town of Dabiq in northern Syria, which is mentioned in a hadith about Armageddon. Harleen K. Gambhir of the Institute for the Study of War considered that while al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's magazine Inspire focuses on encouraging its readers to carry out lone-wolf attacks on the West, Dabiq is more concerned with establishing the religious legitimacy of ISIL and its self-proclaimed caliphate, and encouraging Muslims to emigrate there.

ISIL's use of social media has been described by one expert as "probably more sophisticated than [that of] most US companies". It regularly takes advantage of social media, particularly Twitter, to distribute its message by organizing hashtag campaigns, encouraging Tweets on popular hashtags, and utilizing software applications that enable ISIL propaganda to be distributed to its supporters' accounts. Another comment is that "ISIS puts more emphasis on social media than other jihadi groups. ... They have a very coordinated social media presence." In August 2014, Twitter administrators shut down a number of accounts associated with ISIL. ISIL recreated and publicized new accounts the next day, which were also shut down by Twitter administrators. The group has attempted to branch out into alternative social media sites, such as Quitter, Friendica and Diaspora; Quitter and Friendica, however, almost immediately worked to remove ISIL's presence from their sites.

On 19 August 2014, a propaganda video showing the beheading of US photojournalist James Foley was posted on the Internet. ISIL claimed that the killing had been carried out in revenge for the US bombing of ISIL targets. The video promised that a second captured US journalist Steven Sotloff would be killed next if the airstrikes continued. On 2 September 2014, ISIL released a video purportedly showing their beheading of Sotloff. In the video the executioner says, "I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings. So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people." The next scene shows the same executioner holding the orange jumpsuit of another prisoner and saying, "We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone." On 13 September 2014, ISIL released a similar video purportedly showing the beheading of David Cawthorne Haines, a British aid worker whom they had been holding hostage.

In a switch from its former practices, ISIL's media arm imposed a social media blackout on 27 September 2014, fearing that tweets and posts would give away military positions. ISIL has also attempted to present a more "rational argument" in its series of "press release/discussions" performed by hostage/captive John Cantlie and posted on YouTube. In its most recent "Cantlie presentation", various current and former US officials were quoted, such as US President Barack Obama and former CIA station chief Michael Scheuer.

Finances

A study of 200 documents—personal letters, expense reports and membership rosters—captured from Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Islamic State of Iraq was carried out by the RAND Corporation in 2014. It found that from 2005 until 2010, outside donations amounted to only 5% of the group’s operating budgets, with the rest being raised within Iraq. In the time-period studied, cells were required to send up to 20% of the income generated from kidnapping, extortion rackets and other activities to the next level of the group's leadership. Higher-ranking commanders would then redistribute the funds to provincial or local cells that were in difficulties or needed money to conduct attacks. The records show that the Islamic State of Iraq was dependent on members from Mosul for cash, which the leadership used to provide additional funds to struggling militants in Diyala, Salahuddin and Baghdad.

In mid-2014, Iraqi intelligence extracted information from an ISIL operative which revealed that the organization had assets worth US$2 billion, making it the richest jihadist group in the world. About three quarters of this sum is said to be represented by assets seized after the group captured Mosul in June 2014; this includes possibly up to US$429 million looted from Mosul's central bank, along with additional millions and a large quantity of gold bullion stolen from a number of other banks in Mosul. However, doubt was later cast on whether ISIL was able to retrieve anywhere near that sum from the central bank, and even on whether the bank robberies had actually occurred.

Pictures show damage to the Gbiebe oil refinery in Syria following air strikes by US and coalition forces.

ISIL has routinely practised extortion, by demanding money from truck drivers and threatening to blow up businesses, for example. Robbing banks and gold shops has been another source of income. The group is widely reported as receiving funding from private donors in the Gulf states, and both Iran and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding ISIL, although there is reportedly no evidence that this is the case. This is while John McCain praised Bandar bin Sultan, for supporting forces fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. “Thank God for the Saudis and Prince Bandar,” John McCain said to CNN’s Candy Crowley. According to Steve Clemons in The Atlantic, ISIS, in fact, may have been a major part of Bandar’s covert-ops strategy in Syria.

However, in October 2014, The Daily Telegraph reported that new documents released by the US Treasury disclose that 49-year-old Qatari Central Bank employee Khalifa Muhammad Turki al-Subaiy, known for his role in funding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, and for bankrolling an al-Qaeda offshoot which plotted to blow up airliners using toothpaste tube bombs, is once again raising money for ISIL. The Qatari authorities jailed al-Subaiy for terrorist offences in 2008, but freed him after only six months. A new report to be published next month by a US security think tank is understood to have identified 20 Qataris as senior terrorist financiers and facilitators. Ten of those Qataris are already designated as terrorists on official US and UN blacklists.

The group is also believed to receive considerable funds from its operations in Eastern Syria, where it has commandeered oilfields and engages in smuggling out raw materials and archaeological artifacts. ISIL also generates revenue from producing crude oil from captured oilfields and selling electric power from captured power plants in northern Syria. Some of this electricity is reportedly sold back to the Syrian government. ISIL also generates revenue from producing crude oil and selling electric power in northern Syria. Some of this electricity is reportedly sold back to the Syrian government. ISIL has been selling smuggled Syrian oil in Turkey.

Since 2012, ISIL has produced annual reports giving numerical information on its operations, somewhat in the style of corporate reports, seemingly in a bid to encourage potential donors.

Equipment

The most common weapons used against US and other Coalition forces during the Iraq insurgency were those taken from Saddam Hussein's weapon stockpiles around the country, these included AKM variant assault rifles, PK machine guns and RPG-7s. ISIL has been able to strengthen its military capability by capturing large quantities and varieties of weaponry during the Syrian Civil War and Post-US Iraq insurgency. These weapons seizures have improved the group's capacity to carry out successful subsequent operations and obtain more equipment. Weaponry that ISIL has reportedly captured and employed include SA-7 and Stinger surface-to-air missiles, M79 Osa, HJ-8 and AT-4 Spigot anti-tank weapons, Type 59 field guns and M198 howitzers, Humvees, T-54/55, T-72, and M1 Abrams main battle tanks, M1117 armoured cars, truck-mounted DShK guns, ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns, BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launchers and at least one Scud missile.

When ISIL captured Mosul Airport in June 2014, it seized a number of UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and cargo planes that were stationed there. According to Peter Beaumont of The Guardian, it seemed unlikely that ISIL would be able to deploy them. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported in October 2014 that former Iraqi pilots were training IS militants to fly captured Syrian jets. Witnesses reported that MiG-21 and MiG-23 jets were flying over al-Jarrah military airport, but the US Central Command said it was not aware of flights by Islamic State-operated aircraft in Syria or elsewhere.

ISIL captured nuclear materials from Mosul University in July 2014. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Iraq's UN Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said that the materials had been kept at the university and "can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction". Nuclear experts regarded the threat as insignificant. International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Gill Tudor said that the seized materials were "low grade and would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk".

Timeline of events

Main article: Timeline of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant events

See also: Islamic State of Iraq § Timeline, Syrian Civil War § Course of events, and Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2014

Some of the most recent events in the timeline are shown below:

"Timeline of the Islamic State" redirects here. For further information, see Timeline of the Islamic State (2013), (2014), (2015), (2016), (2017), (2018), (2019), (2020), and (2024).

  Attacks done by ISIS as a group

  Attacks inspired by ISIS

Terror attacks committed or inspired by IS as of March 2024

The following is a list of major terrorist attacks and arrests that have been connected to or have been claimed in reliable sources to be inspired by the Islamic State (IS), also known by other names.

Islamic State's predecessor organization, Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was established in October 2006, after the dissolution of the insurgent groups fighting under the coalition of Mujahideen Shura Council. Under the leadership of its first Emir Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, ISI was in the Iraqi insurgency against American occupation. After the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, ISI, then-led by Abubakr al-Baghdadi, continued its insurgency against the Iraqi government. In April 2013, the group officially changed its name to "Islamic State of Iraq and Levant" and established a presence in Syria.

Between June 2014, when the group self-proclaimed itself to be the Islamic State, and February 2018, IS has often made claims of responsibility over 140 terrorist attacks in 29 countries outside Syria and Iraq, that were "conducted or inspired" by the group, while the evidences of those claims are not verified. Hundreds of other attacks were also carried out since 2018.

Attacks by Islamic State of Iraq: 2006 – 2012

The following is a list of alleged and confirmed attacks carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq organization between 2006 and 2012:

• The 18 April 2007 Baghdad bombings were a series of attacks that occurred when five car bombs exploded across Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq, on 18 April 2007, killing nearly 200 people. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks. US defense secretary Robert Gates, delivering remarks from Tel Aviv, claimed that Islamic State of Iraq might have perpetrated the attacks.
• The Qahtaniyah bombings occurred at around 8pm local time on August 14, 2007, when four co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks detonated in the Kurdish towns of Kahtaniya and Jazeera (Siba Sheikh Khidir), near Mosul. Iraqi Red Crescent's estimates say the bombs killed 796 and wounded 1,562 people, making this the Iraq War's most deadly car bomb attack. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. US military officials alleged that the attacks were launched by ISI fighters.
• The August 2009 Baghdad bombings were three coordinated car bomb attacks and a number of mortar strikes in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.
• On 25 October 2009, Baghdad bombings there were bombings in Baghdad which killed 155 people and injured at least 721 people.
• The April 2010 Baghdad bombings were a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad, Iraq that killed at least 85 people over two days. Nouri al-Maliki alleged that the attacks were carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq.
• The 10 May 2010 Iraq attacks were a series of bomb and shooting attacks that occurred in Iraq on 10 May 2010, killing over 100 people and injuring 350, the highest death toll for a single day in Iraq in 2010. Iraqi officials alleged that Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) group carried out the attacks in retaliation against the killing of ISI's two high-ranking leaders of U.S. and Iraqi forces.
• The 2 November 2010 Baghdad bombings were a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad, Iraq, that killed more than 110 people. While the Islamic State of Iraq did not officially claim responsibility for the attacks, a U.S. military spokesperson alleged that ISI-affiliated fighters might have carried out the attacks.
• The January 2011 Iraq suicide attacks were a series of three consecutive suicide bombings in Iraq which left at least 133 dead.

2013

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Iraq	January 2013		A car bomb killed 28 Shia pilgrims and injured 60 others as they were returning from Karbala, while in the capital Baghdad a roadside bomb exploded near a minibus, killing four pilgrims and wounding 15 others.	32	75
			Two suicide bombing attacks killed 55 and wounded 288 in Baghdad, Tikrit and Kirkuk.	55	288
			A suicide bomber blew himself up during a funeral for a politician's relative in the city of Tuz Khurmatu, killing 42 and leaving 75 others wounded.	42	75
	February 2013	February 2013 Kirkuk attack	A suicide car bombing at the provincial police HQ in Kirkuk killed 36 and injured 105 others, including the city's chief of police.	42	111
			A series of car bombs struck Baghdad, killing 37 and injured more than 130 others.	37	130
			A string of bombings and shootings killed 34 and injured 70 others in Iraq.	34	70
	March 2013	Akashat ambush	IS fighters ambushed a Syrian Army convoy escorted by Iraqi soldiers, killing 51 Syrians and 13 Iraqis.	64	10
		19 March 2013 Iraq attacks	A series of coordinated bombings and shootings across central and northern Iraq killed 98 people and left 240 wounded.	98	240
	April 2013	15 April 2013 Iraq attacks	A series of 70 attacks, mostly car bombings and shootings, occur across 20 cities in Iraq.	75	356	Some perpetrators killed, others escaped
		2013 Hawija clashes	Four days of shootings, bombings and clashes in and around Hawija after the Iraqi Army tried to arrest protestors	331	600+	Some perpetrators killed, others escaped
	May 2013	May 2013 Iraq attacks	Dozens of attacks rock several cities in Iraq in a week long outbreak of violence.	449	732	Some perpetrators killed, others escaped
	June 2013	10 June 2013 Iraq attacks	A series of bombings strike nine cities in northern and central Iraq	94	289	Some perpetrators killed, others escaped
		16 June 2013 Iraq attacks	A series of bombings and shootings targeting various cities across Iraq	54	174	Some perpetrators killed, others escaped
	December 2013	2013 Baghdad Christmas Day bombings	Three bombings in Baghdad targeting Christians on Christmas Day	38	70	Unknown

2014

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Belgium	May 2014	Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting	The Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels, Belgium was targeted when a gunman identified as Mehdi Nemmouche opened fire at the museum. Three people died at the scene while a fourth died on 6 June due to injuries. When apprehended in Marseille, with his belongings was a camera with a recording claiming responsibility for the shooting, and a white sheet with the name of the Islamic State emblazoned onto it.	4	0	Subject in custody, extradited to Belgium.
Iraq	June 2014	Badush prison massacre	On 10 June, ISIL militants massacred at least 670 Shia prisoners in Badush prison, Mosul, Iraq.	1, 000+	Unknown
		Camp Speicher massacre	On 12 June 2014, ISIL killed at least 1,566 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets in an attack on Camp Speicher in Tikrit. At the time of the attack there were between 4,000 and 11,000 unarmed cadets in the camp. This is the second deadliest terrorist attack in history and the deadliest attack conducted by ISIL.	1566–1700	Unknown	In retaliation Iraqi government launched counter offences against ISIL. New mass graves of ISIL victims were also discovered in Tikrit.
Australia	September 2014	2014 Endeavour Hills stabbings	Two counter-terrorism police officers stabbed.	0	2	Perpetrator shot dead.
		2014 Australian counter-terrorism raids	15 people were detained after planning to kidnap a random Australian citizen and execute them. One hostage was murdered during the siege and one killed by a bullet ricochet from a police officer during the raid.	2	4	Perpetrator shot dead by police during raid.
Canada	October 2014	2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ramming attack	Two soldiers run down with car. One dies.	1	1	Perpetrator shot dead after chase.
		2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa	Soldier standing guard at National War Memorial shot dead. Gunman storms Parliament. Security officer shot in leg trying to take gun from perpetrator.	1	3	Perpetrator shot dead in Parliament Building.
United States		2014 Queens hatchet attack	A recent convert to Islam and IS supporter attacks two police officers with a hatchet. A civilian is wounded when other officers attempt to shoot the attacker.	0	3	Perpetrator shot dead by police
France	December 2014	2014 Tours police station stabbing	An IS supporter entered into a police station in Joué-lès-Tours screaming "Allahu Akbar" before stabbing three police officers.	0	3	Perpetrator shot dead.

2015

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Saudi Arabia	January 2015	2015 Arar attack	Two attackers open fire on border guards, killing 3 before one detonates his suicide vest	3	1	Both perpetrators killed
Libya		2015 Corinthia Hotel attack	Car bombing, suicide attack and subsequent hostage situation in hotel known for hosting foreigners and government officials.	10	7	Some perpetrators dead, others escaped
Denmark	February 2015	2015 Copenhagen shootings	Danish-born Jordanian-Palestinian Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein opened fire on a free speech event hosted by Lars Vilks and the Great Synagogue of Copenhagen. El-Hussein had pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi a few days prior.	2	5	Perpetrator shot by police
Tunisia	March 2015	Bardo National Museum attack	Mass shooting and hostage-taking of foreign tourists at the Bardo National Museum	22	50	2 perpetrators killed by police, 1 escaped
Yemen		2015 Sana'a mosque bombings	Suicide bombings of two Shi'a mosques in Sana'a	142	351	All perpetrators killed in the explosions
Saudi Arabia	May 2015	Qatif and Dammam mosque bombings	The mosque bombings occurred on 22 and 29 May 2015. On Friday May 22, a suicide bomber attacked the Shia "Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib Mosque" situated in Qudeih village of Qatif city in Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia, which killed at least 21 people. The event is the second deadly attack against Shia in six months.	26	106	IS claimed responsibility for the blast.
United States		Curtis Culwell Center attack	Two men attacked officers with gunfire at the entrance to an exhibit featuring cartoon images of Muhammad at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas	0	1	Both perpetrators killed
Turkey	June 2015	2015 Diyarbakır rally bombing	TNT bombing targeting a rally of the Peoples' Democratic Party	5	100+	Perpetrator arrested.
France		Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack	French-born Islamist beheads his boss and then rams his car into a gas cylinder outside a factory	1	2	Perpetrator arrested; commits suicide in prison six months after the attack
Kuwait		2015 Kuwait mosque bombing	Suicide bombing of a Shi'a mosque in Kuwait City	27	227	Bomber killed in explosion, 15 others convicted of involvement in the attack
Tunisia		2015 Sousse attacks	Mass shooting targeting western tourists at a hotel in Port El Kantaoui 10 kilometres north of Sousse	38	39	Perpetrator killed by police
Iraq	July 2015	2015 Khan Bani Saad bombing	Suicide car bombing targeting Shi'a market in the city of Khan Bani Saad	130	130+	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Turkey		2015 Suruç bombing	Suicide bombing targeting the youth wing of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed	33	104	Perpetrator dead.
France	August 2015	2015 Thalys train attack	A man who supported IS attacked a Thalys train from Paris to Amsterdam before being subdued.	0	3	Perpetrator subdued and arrested.
Turkey	October 2015	2015 Ankara bombings	Suicide bombing targeting protesters at a peace rally	109	400+	Perpetrators dead.
Egypt / Russia		Metrojet Flight 9268	Flight en route from Egypt to Saint Petersburg bombed	224	0	Unknown
Lebanon	November 2015	2015 Beirut bombings	Suicide bombings targeting Shi'a civilians in the Hezbollah dominated suburb Bourj el-Barajneh	43	200–240	Perpetrators dead.
France		November 2015 Paris attacks	Shootings, suicide bombings, grenade, hostage taking.	131	413	Perpetrators killed
Tunisia		2015 Tunis bombing	Suicide bombing targeting a bus carrying presidential guards.	13	16	Perpetrator killed in explosion.
United States	December 2015	2015 San Bernardino attack	Married couple Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik open fire on a holiday at the Inland Regional Center before fleeing. The wife swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a Facebook post the day of the massacre	14	24	Perpetrators shot by police
Syria		Tell Tamer bombings	Truck bombings of a Kurdish militia hospital and a market.	60	80	Unknown
		2015 al-Qamishli bombings	Suicide bombings in three restaurants frequented by Kurds and Assyrian Christians.	16	35	Perpetrators killed in explosions

2016

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Libya	January 2016	Zliten truck bombing	Suicide truck bombing at a police training camp	60	200+	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Egypt		2016 Hurghada attack	Stabbing attack targeting foreign tourists at the Bella Vista hotel in Hurghada	0	2	Two perpetrators killed by police
Turkey		2016 Istanbul bombing	Suicide bombing targeting foreign tourists in Sultanahmet Square	13	14	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Indonesia		2016 Jakarta attacks	Suicide bombings and shootout targeting a Starbucks and a police station in central Jakarta. The attacks occurred near the UN offices and several foreign embassies	4	24	Four perpetrators killed, others escaped
Saudi Arabia		Mahasen mosque attack	Suicide bombing and shooting targeting a Shi'a mosque	4	18	One perpetrator killed; other arrested
Syria	February 2016	February 2016 Homs bombings	Two car bombings in Homs targeting Alawite civilians	64	100+	Unknown
		February 2016 Sayyidah Zaynab bombings	Car bombing and two suicide bombings targeting the Sayyidah Zaynab Mosque, a Shi'a mosque believed to contain the grave of Muhammad's granddaughter.	83	178	Perpetrators killed by explosions
Turkey	March 2016	March 2016 Istanbul bombing	A suicide bomber exploded targeting civilians in a commercial shop on a busy tourist destination and business center.	4	36	Perpetrator killed by explosion
Belgium		2016 Brussels bombings	Suicide bombers attacked a metro station and an airport	32	340	Three perpetrators killed in explosions; other suspects sought
Yemen		2016 Aden car bombing	Three suicide car bombings targeting military checkpoints	27	Dozens	Perpetrators killed in explosions
Iraq		2016 Iraqi soccer stadium bombings	Suicide bomber detonated suicide bomb in stadium	41	78	Perpetrator killed by explosion
Bangladesh	April 2016	Murder of Xulhaz Mannan	Xulhaz Mannan, a U.S. embassy employee and the editor of Bangladesh's first LGBT magazine, was hacked to death in his apartment along with his friend.	2	0	Perpetrators at large
Iraq		April 2016 Baghdad bombing	At least 38 people were killed and 86 others wounded, as a result of two car bombings, in Iraq's capital of Baghdad.	38+	86+
Iraq	May 2016	2016 Samawa bombing	On 1 May 2016, attacks targeted Iraq's deep Shiite south, with the explosion of twin suicide car bombs in the city of Samawa. At least 33 people were killed and 75 wounded.	33	75	Two perpetrators killed in explosions
		11 May 2016 Baghdad bombing	Four separate car bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad claimed at least 110 lives.	110+	165+	Perpetrators killed in car explosions
		Real Madrid Fan Club massacre	Two separate incidents in which three gunmen and suicide bombers attacked Real Madrid football fans at a supporters' café	28	45	Roughly six perpetrators killed
		May 2016 Baghdad bombings	On 17 May 2016, a series of bombings by the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant hit the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad. At least 101 people were killed and 194 injured.	101	194
Yemen		23 May 2016 Yemen bombings	Two suicide bombings targeted army recruits.	45+	60+	Two perpetrators killed (maybe more)
Kazakhstan	June 2016	2016 Aktobe shootings	A group of several dozen militants attacked two gun shops and a military base in Aktobe, killing four civilians and three soldiers. Several attackers were killed during the attacks on the shops and base and more were killed during police raids that followed over the next few days.	7	40+	18 perpetrators killed, 9 arrested
France		2016 Magnanville stabbing	IS took responsibility for a stabbing that killed a French police officer and his companion.	2	0	Perpetrator killed by police
Malaysia		2016 Movida Bar grenade attack	Two men approaching a bar and one of them throwing a grenade before escaping with their motorcycle while customer is watching the UEFA Euro 2016 between Italy and Spain. First ever IS attack in Malaysia.	0	8	Perpetrator arrested by police
Turkey		Atatürk Airport attack	Three men from former Soviet states opened fire on Atatürk Airport in Istanbul before blowing themselves up.	45	239	Perpetrators killed
United States		Orlando nightclub shooting	29-year-old Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others in a mass shooting inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.	49	53	Perpetrator killed, IS claimed responsibility for attack
Bangladesh	July 2016	2016 Dhaka attack	Five men attacked a café in the Gulshan Thana of Dhaka and took hostages.	24	50	Five perpetrators killed
Iraq		July 2016 Baghdad bombings	Two bomb attacks in the district of Karrada and the suburb of Sha'ab in Baghdad.	347	225+	Members of a militant cell connected to the bombings arrested
Saudi Arabia		2016 Medina suicide bombing	A suicide bomber targeted security forces outside the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, a man blew himself up after police tried to arrest him near the U.S. consulate in Jeddah, and two more bomb attacks occurred in Qatif.	7	7	Four perpetrators killed by explosions
France		2016 Nice truck attack	On 14 July (Bastille Day), Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31 year old from Tunisia, deliberately drove a 19 tonne cargo truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day on Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France. IS claimed responsibility.	86	434	Perpetrator killed by police at the scene.
Germany		2016 Würzburg train attack	A 17-year-old Afghan refugee seriously injured four people with a knife and an axe on a train near Würzburg in Germany	0	5	Perpetrator killed by police
Afghanistan		July 2016 Kabul bombing	Two suicide bombers detonated explosive belts on civilians.	80	231+	Both perpetrators killed in explosion
Germany		2016 Ansbach bombing	A Syrian refugee blow himself up near a music festival in Ansbach, where there were about 2,500 people at that moment.	0	15	Perpetrator killed in explosion
France		2016 Normandy church attack	Priest Jacques Hamel, two nuns, and two worshipers taken hostage by two men armed with knives in the church during mass. Hamel was killed.	1	3	Both perpetrators killed by police
Syria		July 2016 Qamishli bombings	Two explosions in the predominantly Kurdish town Qamishli in Syria, killing at 57 including 8 Asayish people and wounding over 171 people.	57	171+	At least 1 perpetrator was killed by the explosion
Belgium	August 2016	2016 Charleroi attack	A man attacked two policewomen with a machete in Charleroi, Belgium, before being shot dead by another police officer. The attacker is reported to have said "Allahu Akbar" during the attack.	0	2	Perpetrator killed by police
Pakistan		August 2016 Quetta attacks	A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least 90 people and wounded more than 100 in an attack on mourners gathered at a hospital in the southwestern city of Quetta, and Islamic State and a Taliban faction claimed responsibility.	93+	130+	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Turkey		August 2016 Gaziantep bombing	A child suicide bomber kills over 50 at a wedding in Gaziantep province.	57	69	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Iraq	September 2016	9 September 2016 Baghdad bombings	A suicide bomber in a car in Baghdad killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 60 Islamic State claimed	40+	60+	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Belgium	October 2016	2016 stabbing of Brussels police officers	Three police officers were attacked by a man with a machete in the Schaerbeek municipality of Brussels.	0	4
Pakistan		October 2016 Quetta attacks		61	160+	One killed during operation, two killed in explosion
United States	November 2016	Ohio State University attack	Abdul Razak Ali Artan stabbed people and ran others over with a car, injuring 11, before being shot and killed by a police officer. IS praised the attack and said Artan had responded to their call to attack civilians of coalition countries.	1	11	Suspect shot by OSU response team officer.
Jordan	December 2016	2016 Al-Karak attack	On 18 December, a series of shootings occurred in Al-Karak, Jordan.	15	37	Four perpetrators were killed by security forces. IS later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Germany		2016 Berlin truck attack	On 19 December, Anis Amri, a 24 year old Tunisian asylum seeker, hijacked a Polish truck in Berlin and drove it into a Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, Berlin. The attack claimed 13 lives, including the original driver of the truck. IS claimed responsibility and later released a video of Amri pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.	13	56	Suspect killed in Sesto San Giovanni (MI) by Italian police.

2017

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Turkey	January 2017	2017 Istanbul nightclub shooting	At least 39 people are killed and nearly 70 wounded after a gunman opens fire in a nightclub in Istanbul, on the European coast of the Bosphorus.	39	69	Perpetrator arrested on 16 January. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claims responsibility.
Iraq		January 2017 Baghdad bombings	At least 70 people dead in 3 separate suicide bomb attacks in Baghdad over the space of 2 days.	70+	100+	Perpetrators killed in explosions
Afghanistan	February 2017	2017 Kabul Supreme Court Bombing	Suicide bomber kills 22 at the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, Kabul. IS claims responsibility.	22+	35+	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Iraq			Car bomb explodes in Baghdad's Baya neighborhood, a majority-Shiite community. IS claims responsibility.	54+	63+
Pakistan		2017 Sehwan suicide bombing	Suicide bomber kills 100 at the Sufi Shrine. IS claims responsibility.	90	300+	Perpetrator killed in explosion
Syria		Part of Battle of al-Bab	Car bomb kills 51 people in a small village outside of Al-Bab, Syria.	51	Unknown	IS claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	March 2017	March 2017 Kabul attack	Shooting and bombing at military hospital in Kabul.	49	63+	Perpetrators killed
Bangladesh		2017 Dhaka suicide bombing	Suicide bomber enters under-construction Rapid Action Battalion headquarters and detonates suicide vest.	0	2	Perpetrator killed. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
United Kingdom		2017 Westminster attack	Car plows through crowd gathered outside of Westminster Palace before assailant stabbed police officer to death.	6	49	Perpetrator killed. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Bangladesh		2017 South Surma bombings	Militants bombed a crowd of about 500–600 people gathered near the army and police perimeter, which was about 400 metres from the militant hideout.	7	40+	Four perpetrators killed. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Egypt	April 2017	2017 Palm Sunday church bombings	Suicide bombings at two churches on Palm Sunday in the cities of Tanta and Alexandria.	363	505	Perpetrators killed. IS claims responsibility for the attacks.
Sweden		2017 Stockholm truck attack	Truck drives into people on Drottninggatan pedestrian street before crashing into Åhléns department store, after which the perpetrator fails to ignite a homemade butane gas bomb.	5	15	Perpetrator arrested. IS does not claim responsibility for the attack but the perpetraitor claims to act on their behalf.
France		April 2017 Champs-Élysées attack	Police officers shot in Champs-Élysées, Paris. The incident killed one police officer and injured two more before the perpetrator was killed.	2	2	Perpetrator killed. IS claimed responsibility.
Pakistan	May 2017	2017 Mastung bombing	A bombing targeting Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in Mastung District.	25	37	IS claimed responsibility.
United Kingdom		Manchester Arena bombing	Suicide bombing targeting concertgoers at the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.	22	59	Perpetrator killed. IS claimed responsibility.
Philippines		Battle of Marawi	Philippine security forces launch an operation in Marawi upon receiving reports that Isnilon Hapilon is meeting with militants of the Maute group in the city. The militants in response took control of its medical center, burned schools and buildings and released prisoners.	1233	1400+	90% of Marawi recaptured by government forces. 12 militants detained.
Indonesia		2017 Jakarta bombings	Islamic state claimed responsibility for Jakarta bus station attacks that left at least three policemen dead and 11 others wounded on Wednesday.	3	12
Egypt		2017 Minya attack	Masked gunmen opened fire on a convoy carrying Coptic Christians traveling from Maghagha in Egypt's Minya Governorate.	28	22	Perpetrators caught. IS claims responsibility.
United Kingdom	June 2017	2017 London Bridge attack	Van drives into pedestrians on London Bridge before three men emerge and stab people in nearby bars and restaurants.	8	48	Perpetrators killed. IS claims responsibility.
Australia		2017 Brighton siege	Somali-born Yacqub Khayre orchestrates a siege taking a prostitute hostage in a serviced apartment complex in Brighton, Australia and kills the complex clerk before enticing police to the complex. He makes references to al-Qaeda and IS.	1	3	Perpetrator killed. IS claims responsibility and police declare it a terrorist incident.
Iran		2017 Tehran attacks	On 7 June 2017, two attacks were simultaneously carried in the Iranian parliament and the Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini, shrine of Iran's revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.	17	42	4 of the perpetrators killed, 2 of them killed in explosions, IS claims responsibility.
Belgium		June 2017 Brussels attack	An attacker detonated a small bomb in Brussels-Central railway station, and was later shot dead by police.	1	0
Afghanistan	August 2017		Suicide Blast kills 36 people in Afghanistan. IS claims responsibility of the attack.	36	Unknown	2 perpetrators dead in the suicide blast.
Pakistan		August 2017 Quetta suicide bombing	Suicide blast kills 15 people including 8 Pakistani soldiers.	15	40	IS claimed responsibility.
Finland		2017 Turku attack	Two women were killed in the attack. The perpetrator was identified as Abderrahman Bouanane, a Moroccan citizen and rejected asylum seeker, who reportedly identified himself as a "soldier of the Islamic State". Despite this there was no claim of responsibility from IS.	2	8	Life sentence for Turku stabber.
Pakistan		August 2017 Quetta suicide bombing	Suicide blast kills 15 people including 8 Pakistani soldiers.	15	40	IS claimed responsibility.
Spain		2017 Barcelona attack	Van hits several pedestrians after jumping sidewalk in La Rambla	16	152	Perpetrator killed.IS claimed responsibility.
Belgium		August 2017 Brussels attack	Two soldiers were injured by an assailant wielding a knife, who was shot by authorities and later died in the hospital.	1	2
United Kingdom	September 2017	Parsons Green bombing	A bomb explodes at Parsons Green station in London	0	30	IS claimed responsibility.
Canada		2017 Edmonton attack	Edmonton police constable Mike Chernyk was allegedly hit and stabbed by 30-year-old Abdulahi Sharif, who then hit 4 pedestrians with a rental truck in a police chase	0	5	IS flag found in rental truck.
France	October 2017	Marseille stabbing	A man killed two women at the Saint-Charles Station in Marseille, France	3	0	IS claimed responsibility.
United States		2017 New York City truck attack	A man drove a flatbed pickup truck into pedestrians on a bike path along West Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.	8	12	Attacker taken into Police Custody. IS claimed responsibility.
Egypt	November 2017	2017 Sinai mosque attack	Attackers launched rocket propelled grenades and opened fire on the worshipers during the crowded Friday prayer at al-Rawda near Bir al-Abed.	311	128	Survivors noted that the attackers brandished the Islamic State flag.
United States	December 2017	2017 New York City attempted bombing	Akayed Ullah, 27, attempted a suicide bombing at the 42nd Street-Port Authority Bus Terminal. The crude pipe bomb injured 4 people including the bomber.	0	4	The perpetrator was reported as declaring his allegiance to IS.
Afghanistan		December 2017 Kabul suicide bombing	Suicide bombing at the Tabayan cultural centre in Kabul.	50	80	Perpetrators killed. IS claimed responsibility.

2018

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Iraq	January 2018	January 15, 2018 Baghdad bombings	On 15 January 2018, two suicide bombings took place at al-Tayaran Square of Baghdad, killing 38 people and injuring more than 105 others. IS claimed responsibility.	38	105	Perpetrators killed. IS claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan		2018 Save the Children Jalalabad attack	On 24 January 2018, militants affiliated with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – Khorasan Province launched a bomb and gun attack on a Save the Children office in Jalalabad, a city in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar, killing six people and injuring 27.	6	27	Perpetrators killed. IS claimed responsibility.
Russia	February 2018	2018 Kizlyar church shooting	On 18 February 2018, a 22-year-old man local to the Russia's southern province of Dagestan carrying a knife and a hunting rifle opened fire on a crowd at an Orthodox church in Kizlyar, killing five women and injuring several other people.	6	5	Perpetrator Killed. IS claimed responsibility.
France	March 2018	Carcassonne and Trèbes attack	A hostage crisis unfolded in the southern French town of Trèbes on 23 March 2018, but began hours earlier in Carcassonne, when 26-year-old French-Moroccan Redouane Lakdim killed a motorist and injured his passenger, then stole the car and attacked four French police officers, wounding one. Lakdim drove to nearby Trèbes, where he stormed a Super U supermarket, ultimately killing two civilians and a gendarme and injuring several more.	5	15	Perpetrator killed. Gunman claimed allegiance with IS.
Iraq	April 2018	2018 Asdira funeral bombing	25 people were killed and 18 wounded when explosives exploded at a funeral for Sunni Muslim tribal fighters in the village of Asdira near the northern Iraqi town of Al-Shirqat.	25	18	IS claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan		April 2018 Kabul suicide bombing	On 22 April 2018, a suicide blast killed 69 people and wounded dozens more Sunday at a voter registration center in Koche Mahtab Qala, in the Dashte Barchi area of western Kabul, Afghanistan.	69	120	Perpetrator killed. IS claimed responsibility.
		30 April 2018 Kabul suicide bombings	At least 29 people were killed and 50 others injured in two suicide bombings in the Afghan capital Kabul, including several journalists documenting the scene.	29	50	IS claimed responsibility.
Libya	May 2018	2018 attack on the High National Elections Commission in Tripoli, Libya	Suicide bombers attacked the head offices of Libya's electoral commission in Tripoli, killing at least 16 people, injuring 20 and setting fire to the building.	16	20	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
France		2018 Paris knife attack	On 12 May 2018, a man was fatally shot by police after killing one pedestrian and injuring several more in Paris, France.	2	8	Perpetrator killed. IS claims responsibility.
Indonesia		2018 Surabaya churches bombings	The 2018 Surabaya churches bombings were a series of terrorist attacks that occurred on 13 May 2018 in three churches in Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia. The explosions took place at Innocent Saint Mary Catholic Church (Gereja Katolik Santa Maria Tak Bercela, SMTB) on Ngagel Madya Street, Surabaya Central Pentecost Church (Gereja Pantekosta Pusat Surabaya, GPPS) on Arjuno Street, and Indonesia Christian Church (Gereja Kristen Indonesia, GKI) on Diponegoro Street. The first explosion took place at the SMTB Church. The second and third explosions followed 30 minutes apart.	28	57	28 dead including all of the perpetrators. IS claims responsibility.
Belgium		2018 Liege shooting	On 29 May 2018, Benjamin Herman, a prisoner on temporary leave from prison, stabbed two female police officers, took their guns and shot and killed them and a civilian in Liège, Belgium.	4	4	Perpetrator killed. IS claims responsibility.
Afghanistan	June 2018		A suicide bomber killed at least 36 people and injured 65 others at a gathering of Taliban and Afghan armed forces in the Rodat district of the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar	36	65	Perpetrator killed. IS claimed responsibility.
	July 2018	July 2018 Jalalabad suicide bombing	On 1 July 2018, a suicide bomber detonated in the center of the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, killing 20 people, mainly Sikhs and Hindus, and injuring 20 others. Islamic State claimed responsibility	20	20	IS claimed responsibility.
Pakistan		13 July 2018 Pakistan bombings	Siraj Raisani was about to address an election rally when a suicide bomber, carrying around 16–20 kg of explosive material in his vest, blew himself up among a crowd of more than 1000 people.Along with Raisani, the explosion killed 128 people.Two days after the attack, on 15 July 2018, the number of dead increased to 149, while 186 other people were injured, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Pakistan since the APS massacre in Peshawar in 2014.	149	186	IS claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan			At least 23 people, including an AFP driver, were killed and 107 others injured in a suicide bombing near Kabul International Airport as scores of people were leaving the airport after welcoming home Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum from exile.	23	107	IS claimed responsibility.
Pakistan		2018 Quetta suicide bombing	On 25 July 2018, during polling for the 2018 Pakistani general election, a bomb blast outside a polling station in Quetta's Eastern Bypass area resulted in 31 people being killed and over 35 injured. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group's Amaq News Agency.	31	40	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Syria		2018 As-Suwayda attacks	The 2018 As-Suwayda attacks were a string of suicide bombings and gun attacks that took place in and around As-Suwayda, Syria on 25 July, killing at least 246 people and injuring more than 200. The attacks were committed by the Islamic State.	246	200+	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Tajikistan		Terrorist attack against cyclists in Tajikistan	Four cyclists, including two Americans, are killed after a car plowed through tourists traveling through Tajikistan.	4	3	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan	August 2018	2018 Gardez Shiite Mosque Afghanistan Attack	Two militants dressed in burqa entered a Shiite mosque in the town of Gardez in the province of Paktia and opened fire. One of the attackers blew himself up and the other was gunned down by security guards. 39 people were killed and at least 80 others injured in the attack.	48	70	IS claimed responsibility.
		August 2018 Kabul suicide bombing	A suicide bombing occurred on Wednesday 15 August 2018 in the Shia region of Kabul took place. Afghanistan's Ministry of Public Health reported that 48 people including 34 students were killed and 67 were injured. IS claimed responsibility.	48	67	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Iran	September 2018	Ahvaz military parade attack	On 22 September 2018, a military parade was attacked in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz. The attackers killed 25 people, including soldiers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and civilian bystanders.	30	70	Perpetrators killed. IS claimed responsibility and provided a video containing the alleged attackers discussing the attack.
Egypt	November 2018	2018 Minya bus attack	On 2 November 2018, multiple gunmen opened fire on a bus in Minya carrying Christian Copts, the attack killed 7 and injured 14, IS also claimed responsibility for the attack.	7	14	IS claimed responsibility and all of the 19 perpetrators were killed by Egyptian soldiers 2 days later.
Australia		2018 Melbourne stabbing attack	On 9 November 2018, a Somali man set his car on fire and started stabbing people, killing one and injuring two. The attacker died in hospital after being shot by police. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.	1	2	The attacker, an IS sympathizer, was shot dead. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
France	December 2018	2018 Strasbourg attack	On the evening of 11 December 2018, a mass shooting occurred in Strasbourg, France, when a man with a revolver opened fire on civilians in the city's busy Christkindelsmärik (Christmas market) killing five and wounding 11, before fleeing in a taxi.	5	11	Perpetrator killed by police 2 days later. IS claimed responsibility, but French interior minister Christophe Castaner described its claim as "totally opportunistic".
Russia		2018 Magnitogorsk building collapse	On 31 December 2018, an apartment building in Magnitogorsk, Russia, was rocked by an explosion that leveled several floors, killing and wounding dozens of people. The following day a bus burst into flames and killed three people. However, the Russian Government has stated that the explosion was likely caused by a gas leak, not IS.	42	12+	The 165th issue of the Islamic State's An-Naba newspaper contained the claim of responsibility.

2019

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Philippines	January 2019	2019 Jolo Cathedral bombings	2019 Jolo Cathedral bombings: 22 people, were killed and 102 others were injured when two bombs exploded in a cathedral during Sunday mass in Jolo, Philippines. The Islamic State-related branch of Abu Sayyaf terror group Ajang Ajang faction was behind the attack.	20	102	Abu Sayyaf (which is a part of IS) is believed to have carried out the attacks however IS has also claimed responsibility.
Pakistan	April 2019	2019 Quetta bombing	A suicide blast took place in a potato stall in Shia dominated Hazarganji vegetable market.	22	48+	Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and IS claimed responsibility
Sri Lanka		2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings	On 21 April 2019, 6 suicide bomb attacks killing 253, including 45 children and 38 foreign nationals. Targets were 3 churches, namely St Anthony's church – Kotahena, St. Sebestian church – Negombo, Zion Church – Batticaloa and 3 leading hotels in Colombo namely Kingsbury Hotel, Shangri-La Hotel and Cinnamon Grand Hotel. There were 2 other suicide explosion in the afternoon in a small lodge in Dehiwala killing 2 and in the house of a main attacker in Colombo, killing 7 individuals including 3 police officers.	261	500+	IS claimed responsibility for the attack through AMAQ News Agency. Local Islamic extremist group, National Thawheeth Jama'ath is also directly involved in the attack.
		April 2019 Kalmunai shootout	On 27 April 2019, Sri Lankan security forces and militants from National Thowheeth Jama'ath allegedly linked to IS clashed after the security forces raided a safe house of the militants. Sixteen people, including six children, died during the raid as three cornered suicide bombers blew themselves up.	16	2	Groups involved in the attack swore allegiance to IS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Afghanistan	August 2019	17 August 2019 Kabul bombing	On 17 August 2019, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb in a wedding hall, killing at least 92 people and injuring more than 140.	92	142	IS claimed responsibility.
Iraq			In the night of 24 August 2019 six Iraqi people (five youths and one policeman) were killed and ten others were wounded when Islamic State militants launched a mortar attack on a football pitch in the village of Daquq at the north of Kirkuk	6	10	IS claimed responsibility.
Tajikistan	November 2019		On 6 November 2019, around 20 ISIS militants from Afghanistan conducted an attack on a border post in Rudaki, Tajikistan after crossing into Tajikistan from Afghanistan. The attack resulted in death of a Tajik border guard and a police officer. In the ensuing firefight 15 ISIS militants were killed and five were arrested.	17 (incl. 15 militants)	0	Five IS militants were arrested.
Nigeria	December 2019		On 27 December 2019 it was released a video by Amaq News Agency showing the killing of eleven Christians in Nigeria. ISWAP said it was part of its campaign to avenge the killing of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US military raid in Syria last October.	11	0	IS

2020

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Niger	January 2020	Battle of Chinagodrar	On 9 January 2020 in a gunfight at a Niger military base, 89 Niger Armed Forces soldiers and 77 IS militants killed during the battle.	166	Unknown	IS claimed responsibility.
United Kingdom	February 2020	2020 Streatham stabbing	On 2 February 2020 two people were stabbed in Streatham, London, and one more had minor injuries. The perpetrator, Sudesh Amman, who was a fighter of Islamic State and had previously praised it, was shot dead by police.	1	3	IS claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan	March 2020	6 March 2020 Kabul shooting	On 6 March 2020, ISIL gunmen killed 32 people and injured over 80 people at a ceremony in Kabul.	32	80+	IS claimed responsibility.
		Kabul gurdwara attack	On 25 March 2020, IS killed 25 people in a gurdwara in Kabul.	25	8	IS claimed responsibility
	May 2020	Kabul hospital shooting & Kuz Kunar funeral bombing	On 12 May 2020, gunmen executed a mass shooting at a hospital's maternity ward. 80 patients were evacuated, 24 victims, including newborn babies, mothers, and nurses, killed by the gunmen and all three attackers killed by the army; An hour after the Kabul attack, a suicide bombing took place in Kuz Kunar, Nangarhar Province at the funeral of a police commander, killing 32 mourners and injuring 133 others.	218	133	IS thought to be responsible for the Kabul shooting although the Afghan government blamed the Taliban for it; IS claimed responsibility for the Kuz Kunar bombing.
	August 2020	Jalalabad prison attack	On August 3, 2020, IS launched an attack on an Afghan prison that left at least 29 dead.	29	Unknown	IS claimed responsibility.
Philippines		2020 Jolo bombings	The bombings occurred on August 24, 2020, when insurgents alleged to be jihadists from the Abu Sayyaf group detonated two bombs in Jolo, Sulu, Philippines, killing 14 people and wounding 75 others. The first occurred as Philippine Army personnel were assisting in carrying out COVID-19 humanitarian efforts. The second, a suicide bombing, was carried out near the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral.	14	80	Perpetrator killed in the bombing.
Austria	November 2020	2020 Vienna attack	Between November 2–3, five were killed in Stadttempel, Vienna, including the perpetrator. The Vienna Police Department confirmed that the attacker was an Islamic State sympathizer, and that the attack was motivated by Islamic extremism.	4	22	Perpetrator pledged allegiance to IS.
Syria	December 2020		On 30 December 2020, an assault targeted a convoy of Syrian regime soldiers and militiamen of Bashar al-Assad's elite Fourth Brigade returning from their posts in Deir Ez-Zor. The bus was ambushed in a well-planned operation near the village of Shula by jihadists who set up a false checkpoint to stop the convoy and detonated bombs before opening fire.	40	-	IS claimed responsibility.

2021

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Pakistan	January 2021	Machh attack	IS claims responsibility for killing 11 miners in Balochistan, Pakistan. They kidnapped the workers on 2 or 3 January and took them to the mountains. The victims' hands were tied and their dismembered bodies were on the floor of a cottage. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the attacks, calling them "terrorist".	11	-	IS claimed responsibility.
Iraq		Baghdad bombings	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant targeted Shia Muslims on 21 January 2021 in a clothing market in Tayaran Square, Baghdad. US, UN, EU and the Pope condemn the attack calling it a senseless act of violence.	32	110	IS claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan	March 2021	2021 Afghanistan attacks	Three female media workers are shot dead in Jalalabad, Nangarhar. A fourth woman is wounded. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the attack.	3	1	IS claimed responsibility.
		2021 Afghanistan attacks	A female doctor is killed and a child is wounded in Jalalabad, Nangarhar, after a bomb attached to her rickshaw explodes. Seven workers at a Hazara plaster factory are shot dead in Surkh-Rōd District, Nangarhar. ISIL is suspected to be behind the attacks.	8	1	IS believed to be perpetrators.
	May 2021	2021 Kabul school bombing	A car bombing, followed by two more improvised explosive device (IED) blasts, occurred in front of Sayed al-Shuhada school in Dashte Barchi, a predominantly Shia Hazara area in western Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving at least 85 people dead and 147 injured. The majority of the casualties were girls between 11 and 15 years old. The attack took place in a neighborhood that has frequently been attacked by militants belonging to Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant over the years.	85	147	Afghan Government blame the Taliban. However the Taliban deny they carried out the attack. IS-K is blamed for the attack.
Iraq	July 2021		In the evening of Monday, 19 July 2021, an IS suicide bomber detonated his vest in a crowded market in the densely populated neighbourhood of Baghdad's Sadr City killing at least 30 people, the event happened near the eve of Eid al-Adha Islamic festival. Women and children were among the dead and wounded and some shops burned down as a result of the explosion.	30	50	IS claims responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan	August 2021	2021 Kabul airport attack	On 26 August 2021, at 17:50 local time (13:20 UTC), a suicide bombing occurred near Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Another blast occurred after the bombing. These attacks came hours after the United States State Department told Americans outside the airport to leave due to a terrorist threat. At least 183 people were killed in the attacks, including 13 US service members.	182	200	IS claims responsibility for the attack.
New Zealand	3 September	2021 Auckland Countdown stabbing	An IS supporter stabbed six people before being shot by police on 3 September in Auckland, New Zealand. The attacker came to New Zealand in 2011 and became a person of interest in October 2016, authorities said.	1	6	IS claims responsibility for the attack.
Afghanistan	18 September		At least 7 people were killed and at least 30 were wounded during four explosions which occurred in Nangarhar's capital Jalalabad which targeted a Taliban patrol vehicle and another explosion which occurred in Kabul's Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood.	7	30	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
	8 October	2021 Kunduz mosque bombing	IS Sunni extremist terrorists attacked, and killed many Shia Muslim worshipers in the mosque during their Friday prayer time.	50+	100+	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
	15 October	2021 Kandahar bombing	IS Sunni extremist terrorists attacked, and killed many Shia Muslim worshipers in the mosque during their Friday prayer time.	65	70+	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Niger	2 November	2021 Adab-Dab attack	Gunmen ambushed a delegation held by the mayor of Bani-Bangou.	69		ISGS accused.

2022

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Pakistan	4 March 2022	2022 Peshawar mosque bombing	The Islamic State attacked a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.	63	196	IS-KP claimed responsibility
Israel	22 March 2022	2022 Beersheba attack	1 Arab-Israeli Bedouin men affiliated with IS were responsible for a stabbing in Beersheba.	4	2	IS claimed responsibility
	27 March 2022	2022 Hadera shooting	2 Arab-Israeli men affiliated with IS were responsible for a shooting in Hadera.	2	12	IS claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	21 April 2022	2022 Mazar-i-Sharif mosque bombing	A bomb exploded at a Shiite mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif during Friday prayers, killing 31 people and wounding 87.	31	87
	29 April 2022	April 2022 Kabul mosque bombing	The bombing occurred around 2:00 pm at the Khalifa Aga Gul Jan Mosque in Kabul, where hundreds of congregants were gathered for prayers. Interior ministry spokesman Mohammad Nafi Takor confirmed ten fatalities. Sayed Fazil Agha, the mosque's leader, said more than 50 died. Police chief spokesman Khalid Zadran said as many as 30 people were wounded.	50	30	IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
Benin	1 July 2022		Multiple IS militants ambushed and killed 4 Beninese soldiers near the town of Alfa Kawoura	4	0	IS claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	3 August 2022		Two Taliban police officers were killed and four were wounded during a gunbattle with Islamic State gunmen at a hideout in Kabul. Three Islamic State militants were also killed.	5	4
	5 August 2022		On 5 August 2022, eight people were killed and 18 others were injured when a bomb hidden in a cart exploded near a Shiite mosque in Kabul.	8	18	Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
	30 September 2022	September 2022 Kabul school bombing	A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Kaaj education center in Dashte Barchi, a Hazara neighborhood in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least 52 people.	52+	110
Mozambique	20 October 2022		Many IS militants attacked an Indian-owned Ruby Mine in Montepuez, which is considered the world's largest ruby mine.			IS claimed responsibility
Iran	26 October 2022	2022 Shiraz massacre	An IS terrorist led a massacre at the Shah Cheragh Shia mosque in Shiraz, Fars province, Iran. At least 15 people have been killed due to this event, 2 have been arrested while 1 is still at large. IS has claimed responsibility for the attack on its telegram channel.	15	40	IS claimed responsibility for the massacre.
Turkey	13 November 2022 at 4:20 pm	2022 Istanbul bombing	On 13 November 2022, a bomb exploded on İstiklal Avenue in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul, Turkey, at 4:20 pm local time. Six people were killed and 81 others were injured. The bombing is regarded as a terrorist attack. No group has claimed responsibility, but Turkish authorities announced that Kurdish separatists were behind the attack, implicating the PKK and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Turkey's interior minister, Süleyman Soylu, announced the arrest of the bomber and forty-six others.	6	81	KPP claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan	December 2022	2022 Kabul hotel attack	2 IS militants set off explosives and set fire to the Longan Hotel in Kabul due to its ties to the Chinese government. 6 people were killed, including one of the attackers, and another 18 were injured, including foreign and Afghan civilians and Taliban soldiers.	3	18	One IS perpetrator killed in the bombing.
Syria	26 December 2022		A lone IS suicide bomber detonated a suicide vest in an attack on an SDF security centre in the former ISIS capital, Raqqa. The bomber and at least 6 SDF were killed in the attack.	7	-	IS claimed responsibility.

2023

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Afghanistan	1 January 2023	2023 Kabul airport bombing	An attacker detonated a bomb outside the entrance to the military portion of Kabul International Airport.	20 (claimed)	30 (claimed)	Islamic State claimed responsibility
	11 January 2023	Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan bombing	A suicide bomber detonated outside the Taliban foreign ministry office in Kabul, reportedly during the visit of a Chinese delegation.	20+		Perpetrator killed in the bombing. Islamic State claimed responsibility.
DRC	16 January 2023	Kasindi church bombing	An Islamic State affiliated group planted a bomb in a Pentecostal Church, and blew it up	17	39	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Burkina Faso	23 March 2023		Islamic State militants attacked a unit of Burkina Faso soldiers that was patrolling the area	15	0	Islamic State claimed responsibility
DRC	8 April 2023		The Islamic State - Central Africa Province cell claimed responsibility for the attack after raiding a farm in the village of Enebula in North Kivu province	21	~30	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Syria	16 April 2023		The Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacking and killing a group of around 10 militants and 16 civilians near the capital of Damascus	26	Unknown	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Pakistan	30 July 2023	2023 Khar bombing	A suicide bomb at a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) rally in Khar, Bajaur District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killed at least 63 people[34] and injured nearly 200 others.	63 (+1)	200+	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	13 October 2023	2023 Pul-i-Khumri bombing	The Islamic State claimed responsibility for attack on Shia Mosque in Baghlan	7 (+1)	17	Islamic State claimed responsibility
France	13 October 2023	Arras school stabbing	An IS-pledged lone wolf murdered a teacher and wounded 3 others at his former school in Arras	1	3	The perpetrator pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
Belgium	16 October 2023	2023 Brussels terrorist attack	An IS-pledged lone wolf shot dead 2 Swedish nationals and wounded a third person in Brussels	3 (1)	1	The perpetrator pledged allegiance to the Islamic State Islamic State claimed responsibility
Philippines	3 December 2023	Mindanao State University bombing	A bombing occurred at a Roman Catholic Mass in Mindanao State University, Marawi	4	72	Islamic State claimed responsibility Involvement of local IS affiliate, Maute group, being considered.
Uganda	19 December 2023	Kyabandara parish attack	ADF rebels attacked a Kyabandara parish in Kamwenge district in Western Uganda and killed at least 5 people.	5	0	Allied Democratic forces (ADF) who pledged allegiance to ISIS

2024

Country	Date	Article	Description	Dead	Injured	Status
Iran	3 January 2024	Kerman bombings	Two bombings occurred during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in Kerman.	103	284	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	6 January 2024		Explosives planted in a bus in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul detonated, killing five people.	5	15	Islamic State claimed responsibility
	9 January 2024		An explosive was detonated in a minivan in Kabul, killing three people.	3	4	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Iraq	14 January 2024		Militants in two vehicles opened fire on Iraqi soldiers stationed near Haditha with snipers and semi-automatic weapons, killing three.	3	1	Islamic State suspected
Turkey	28 January 2024	2024 Istanbul church shooting	Two gunmen entered the Church of Santa Maria in Istanbul during Sunday mass and shot and killed a man before leaving.	1	1	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Pakistan	30 January	2024 Sibi bombing	A bombing targeting an election rally for the Tehreek-e-Insaf party in the Sibi region killed at least four people. ISIS claimed ten people were killed or injured.	4	5	Islamic State claimed responsibility
	7 February	2024 Balochistan bombings	Twin bombings occurred at two political offices in Balochistan province a day before the Pakistani general election	30	28+	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Mozambique	9 February	Mucojo attack	In Mucojo, ISIS militants attacked Mozambician soldiers, killing at least 25. Militants also shot at a passenger bus in Meluco, killing the driver. The attackers left notes for the passengers, which announced a declaration of war on Christians and said that non-Muslims would have to pay a jizyah if they did not convert to Islam, and would be killed if they refused.	26+		Islamic State claimed responsibility
Democratic Republic of the Congo	19–20 February		Rebels killed two dozen people with machetes and guns in Ituri and North Kivu Provinces in separate attacks.	24+		ADF accused
Syria	25 February		13 people were killed by a landmine left by ISIS while they were hunting for truffles in Raqqa Governorate.	13		Islamic State accused
Switzerland	3 March	Zürich stabbing attack	A 50-year-old Jewish man was stabbed by a 15-year-old boy in the city of Zürich. The boy had pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State in a video before the attack.		1	Perpetrator pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
Niger	20 March	2024 Tillabéri attack	A Nigerien Army unit was ambushed near Teguey, Tillabéri Region. The Islamic State said that 30 soldiers were killed, while the Nigerien Defense Ministry said there were 23 deaths. Around 30 attackers were allegedly killed during the ambush.	53+	17+	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	21 March	2024 Kandahar New Kabul Bank bombing	A suicide bombing at a branch of the New Kabul Bank in Kandahar occurred people as they were attempting to collect their monthly salaries. ISIS said it was targeting the Taliban, but the Taliban said the attack targeted civilians. The Taliban said that three people were killed and 12 were injured, while the Mirwais Hospital said 21 were killed and over 50 were injured.	3–21	12–50+	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Russia	22–23 March	Crocus City Hall attack	Four gunmen carried out a mass shooting, stabbing, and arson attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast. Gunmen used incendiary devices to ignite a fire, which caused extensive damage, including the collapse of the concert hall's roof.	145	551+	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Afghanistan	29 April		A gunman attacked a Shiite mosque in Guzara, Herat Province with machine-gun fire, killing six people before fleeing the scene.	6	1	Islamic State claimed responsibility
	17 May	2024 Bamyan shooting	Gunman attacked a group of Western tourists (Spaniards, Lithuanians, Norwegians, and Australians), alongside their Afghan guides, in the city of Bamyan, Bamyan Province with machine-gun fire, killing six people (including 3 tourists), and wounding 8 others (including 4 tourists) before fleeing the scene.	6	8	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Lebanon	5 June	2024 Beirut US embassy shooting	A Syrian national opened fire at the U.S. embassy in Beirut, wounding a security guard. The Lebanese Armed Forces responded to the attack, shooting the gunman twice and capturing him.	0	1 (+1)	Local media reported that the perpetrator wore a vest with the words "Islamic State" in Arabic and the initials IS in English, suggesting that he may have been involved with the group.
Russia	16 June	Rostov-on-Don pre-trial detention center hostage crisis	6 ISIS detainees, armed with knives, escaped their cells and took two Russian detention center employees/police officers hostage at a detention center in the city of Rostov-on-Don in Russia, and demanded a vehicle, weapons, and free passage. Russian security forces raided the center, killing all 6 of them and freeing the hostages.	0 (+6)	0-2	All 6 of the detainees had previously been arrested for being Islamic State members and plotting attacks for the group. Videos recorded by the attackers during the incident also showed at least 2 of them wearing Islamic State-style headbands, one of them holding an Islamic State flag, and they proclaimed their allegiance to the group.
	23 June	2024 Dagestan attack	Militants opened at a church and a synagogue in Derbent and another synagogue and a police station in Makhachkala. Six police officers and two militants were killed, while a priest in Derbent was also killed when his throat was slit.	20 (+6)	46	Islamic State suspected

See also

• List of Islamist terrorist attacks
• List of terrorists incidents linked to ISIS-K
• List of terrorist incidents, 2014
• List of terrorist incidents, 2015
• List of wars and battles involving ISIL
• List of the terrorist actions against the Mourning of Muharram

External links

• Yourish, Karen; Watkins, Derek; Giratikanon, Tom; Lee, Jasmine C. (1 July 2016). "How Many People Have Been Killed in ISIS Attacks Around the World". The New York Times.

See also

• 2014 American rescue mission in Syria
• 2014 Australian terror raids
• 2014 ISIL beheading incidents
• 2014 Iranian-led intervention in Iraq
• 2014 military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
• American-led intervention in Syria
• The Beatles , ISIL terrorist cell that has beheaded a number of foreign hostages
• Islamist insurgency in Iran
• Iraqi insurgency (2011–present)
• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War
• List of Middle East peace proposals
• List of wars and battles involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
• Management of Savagery, a book aimed to provide a strategy for al-Qaeda and other jihadists
• Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014)
• Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
• Oil wars
• Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
• Takfiri, a Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy
• Turkish involvement in the 2014 military intervention against ISIL
• United Kingdom and ISIL

Bibliography

• Fishman, Brian (2008). "Using the Mistakes of al Qaeda's Franchises to Undermine Its Strategies". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 618: 46–54. JSTOR 40375774. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kahl, Colin H. (2008). "When to Leave Iraq: Walk Before Running". Foreign Affairs. 87 (4): 151–154. JSTOR 20032727. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Phillips, Andrew (2009). "How al Qaeda lost Iraq" (PDF). Australian Journal of International Affairs. 63 (1): 64–84. doi:10.1080/10357710802649840. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Simon, Steven (2008). "The Price of the Surge: How U.S. Strategy Is Hastening Iraq's Demise". Foreign Affairs. 87 (3): 57–72, 74–76. JSTOR 20032651. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Iraq updates – Institute for the Study of War
• The New War in Iraq ISIL Overview – Midwest Diplomacy (September 2013)
• "This Is the Promise of Allah" – Declaration of the Islamic State (29 June 2014)
• Report on ISIS Governance in Syria – Institute for the Study of War
• Islamic State – Full-length documentary by VICE News (August 2014)
• From Chechnya To Syria – News & Analysis of Russian-speaking Foreign Fighters In Syria