Islamic State

"ISIL", "ISIS", "Daesh", "Daish" and "Islamic State group" redirect here. For other uses, see ISIL (disambiguation), ISIS (disambiguation), Daish (disambiguation), and Islamic state (disambiguation).

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام (Arabic) ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām Participant in the Syrian Civil War, Iraq War (2003–2011), Iraqi insurgency, Iraq War (2014–present), Second Libyan Civil War, Boko Haram insurgency, War in North-West Pakistan, War in Afghanistan, Yemeni Civil War, and other conflicts Primary target of the Global War on Terrorism and of the Military intervention against ISIL: in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Nigeria.
Flag
Motto: باقية وتتمدد Bāqiyah wa-Tatamaddad "Remaining and Expanding"
Anthem: أمتي قد لاح فجر Ummatī, qad lāḥa fajrun "My Nation, A Dawn Has Appeared"
Military situation as of August 27, 2019, in the Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese conflicts.   Controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant   Controlled by Iraqi Government forces   Controlled by Syrian Government forces   Controlled by the Lebanese Government   Controlled by Iraqi Kurdistan forces   Controlled by Syrian Kurdistan forces   Controlled by Syrian Opposition forces   Controlled by Hezbollah   Controlled by al-Nusra Front Note: Iraq and Syria contain large desert areas with limited populations. These areas are mapped as under the control of forces holding roads and towns within them. Detailed map of Syrian Civil War Detailed map of Iraqi insurgency Detailed map of Lebanese insurgency Detailed map of Libyan Civil War Detailed map of Nigerian insurgency Detailed map of Yemeni Civil War
Administrative center	Ar-Raqqah, Syria (de facto capital)
Largest city	Mosul, Iraq
Ideology	Salafism Salafi jihadism Wahhabism
Type	Rebel group controlling territory Current control in Syria Iraq Libya Lebanon Nigeria Yemen Egypt
Military strength & operation areas	Inside Syria and Iraq 200,000 (Kurdish claim) 40,000-60,000(Jihadist claim) 20,000–31,000 (CIA estimate) Outside Syria and Iraq 32,600–57,900 (See Military of ISIL for more-detailed estimates.) Estimated total 52,600–257,900
Leaders
• Leader	Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
• Deputy leader	Abu Ala al-Afri †
• Deputy leader in Syria	Abu Ali al-Anbari
• Deputy leader in Iraq	Abu Muslim al-Turkmani †
• Military chief	Abu Suleiman al-Naser
• Governor of South & Central Euphrates	Abu Fatima al-Jaheishi
• Chief spokesperson	Abu Mohammad al-Adnani
• Chief of Syrian military operations	Abu Omar al-Shishani
Establishment
• Formation (as Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād)	1999
• Joined al-Qaeda	October 2004
• Declaration of an Islamic state in Iraq	13 October 2006
• Claim of territory in the Levant	8 April 2013
• Separated from al-Qaeda	3 February 2014
• Declaration of caliphate	29 June 2014
• Claim of territory in: Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen	13 November 2014
• Afghanistan and Pakistan	29 January 2015
• Nigeria	12 March 2015
• North Caucasus	23 June 2015

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL /ˈaɪsəl/; Arabic: الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/), or simply as the Islamic State (IS), is a Salafi jihadi extremist militant group and self-proclaimed caliphate and Islamic state which is led by Sunni Arabs from Iraq and Syria. As of March 2015, it has control over territory occupied by ten million people in Iraq and Syria, as well as limited territorial control in Libya and Nigeria. The group also operates or has affiliates in other parts of the world including southeast Asia.

The group is known in Arabic as ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, leading to the acronym Da'ish, Da'eesh, or DAESH (داعش, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈdaːʕiʃ]), the Arabic equivalent of "ISIL". On 29 June 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate, with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being named its caliph, and renamed itself "Islamic State" (الدولة الإسلامية, ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah). The new name and the idea of a caliphate has been widely criticised and condemned, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups all refusing to acknowledge it. As caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide and that "the legality of all emirates, groups, states, and organisations, becomes null by the expansion of the khilāfah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas".

The United Nations has held ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has reported ethnic cleansing by the group on a "historic scale". The group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Egypt, and Russia. Over 60 countries are directly or indirectly waging war against ISIL.

The group originated as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004. The group participated in the Iraqi insurgency, which had followed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces. In January 2006, it joined other Sunni insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council, which proclaimed the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in October 2006.

After the Syrian Civil War began in March 2011, the ISI under the leadership of al-Baghdadi sent delegates into Syria in August 2011. These fighters named themselves Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahli ash-Shām—al-Nusra Front—and established a large presence in Sunni-majority areas of Syria, within the governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, and Aleppo.

In April 2013, al-Baghdadi announced the merger of the ISI with al-Nusra Front and that the name of the reunited group was now the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). However, both Abu Mohammad al-Julani and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leaders of al-Nusra and al-Qaeda respectively, rejected the merger. After an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIL on 3 February 2014, citing its failure to consult and "notorious intransigence".

In Syria, the group has conducted ground attacks on both government forces and rebel factions in the Syrian Civil War. The group gained prominence after it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in western Iraq in an offensive initiated in early 2014. Iraq's territorial loss almost caused a collapse of the Iraqi government and prompted renewal of US military action in Iraq.

ISIL is known for its well-funded web and social media propaganda, which includes Internet videos of beheadings of soldiers, civilians, journalists and aid workers, as well as the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage sites.

Muslim leaders around the world have condemned the ideology and actions of ISIL, saying that they have swayed from the path of true Islam and that their actions do not reflect the true message of Islam.

Name

The group has had various names since it began.

1. The group was founded in 1999 by Jordanian radical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād, "The Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad" (JTJ).
2. In October 2004, al-Zarqawi swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden and changed the group's name to Tanẓīm Qāʻidat al-Jihād fī Bilād al-Rāfidayn, "The Organisation of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia", commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Although the group has never called itself al-Qaeda in Iraq, this has been its informal name over the years.
3. In January 2006, AQI merged with several other Iraqi insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council. Al-Zarqawi was killed in June 2006.
4. On 12 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council merged with several more insurgent factions, and on 13 October the establishment of the ad-Dawlah al-ʻIraq al-Islāmiyah, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), was announced. The leaders of this group were Abu Abdullah al-Rashid al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri. After they were killed in a U.S.–Iraqi operation in April 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the new leader of the group.
5. On 8 April 2013, having expanded into Syria, the group adopted the name Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, which more fully translates as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. These names are translations of the Arabic name ad-Dawlah al-Islāmīyah fī-l-ʻIrāq wa-sh-Shām, al-Shām being a description of the Levant or Greater Syria. The translated names are commonly abbreviated as ISIL or ISIS, with a debate over which of these acronyms should be used. The Washington Post concluded that the distinction between the two "is not so great".
6. The name Daʿish is often used by ISIL's Arabic-speaking detractors. It is based on the Arabic letters Dāl, alif, ʻayn, and shīn, which form the acronym (داعش) of ISIL's Arabic name al-Dawlah al-Islamīyah fī al-ʻIrāq wa-al-Shām. There are many spellings of this acronym, with DAESH gaining acceptance. ISIL considers the name Da'ish derogatory, because it sounds similar to the Arabic words Daes, "one who crushes something underfoot", and Dahes, "one who sows discord". ISIL also reportedly uses flogging as a punishment for those who use the name in ISIL-controlled areas. In 2015, over 120 British parliamentarians asked the BBC to use Daesh, following the example of John Kerry and Laurent Fabius.
7. 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. However, in late 2014, top U.S. officials shifted toward DAESH, since it was the preferred term used by Arab partners.
8. On 29 June 2014, the group renamed itself the Islamic State and declared it was a worldwide caliphate Accordingly, the 'Iraq and Shām' was removed from all official deliberations and communications, and the official name became the Islamic State from the date of the declaration.

This name and the claim of caliphate have been widely criticised, with the UN, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups refusing to use it.

History

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

Outline of history – with links to content below

As Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad)  (1999–2004)

As Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (al-Qaeda in Iraq)  (2004–2006)

As Mujahideen Shura Council  (2006)

As Islamic State of Iraq  (2006–2013)

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

As "Islamic State"  (June 2014–present)

Foundation of the group (2003–2006)

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

Following the 2003 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 Iraqi insurgency for the suicide attacks on Shia Islamic mosques, civilians, Iraqi government institutions and Italian soldiers partaking in the US-led 'Multi-National Force'. Al-Zarqawi's group officially pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in October 2004, changing its name to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين, "Organisation of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia"), also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Attacks by the group on civilians, Iraqi Government and security forces, foreign diplomats and soldiers, and American convoys continued with roughly the same intensity. In a letter to al-Zarqawi in July 2005, al-Qaeda's then deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War. The plan included expelling US forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authority as a caliphate, spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbours, and clashing with Israel, which the letter says "was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity".

Iraqi insurgents in 2006

In January 2006, AQI joined hands with several smaller Iraqi insurgent groups under an umbrella organisation 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, more notably the 2005 bombings by AQI of three hotels in Amman. On 7 June 2006, a US airstrike killed al-Zarqawi, who was succeeded as leader of the group by the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri.

On 12 October 2006, MSC united with three smaller groups and six Sunni Islamic tribes to form the "Mutayibeen Coalition". It swore by Allah "... to rid Sunnis from the oppression of the rejectionists (Shi'ite Muslims) and the crusader occupiers, ... to restore rights even at the price of our own lives... to make Allah's word supreme in the world, and to restore the glory of Islam...". A day later, MSC declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), which should comprise Iraq's six mostly Sunni Arab governorates, with Abu Omar al-Baghdadi being announced as its Emir. Al-Masri was given the title of Minister of War within the ISI's ten-member cabinet.

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

As Islamic State of Iraq (2006–2013)

Main article: Islamic State of Iraq

According to a study compiled by U.S. 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. The group built in strength and at its height enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad, claiming Baqubah as a capital city.

The U.S. troops surge of 2007 supplied the U.S. military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed.

Between July and October 2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq was reported to have lost its secure military bases in Anbar province and the Baghdad area. During 2008, a series of U.S. and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens, such as the Diyala and Al Anbar governorates, to the area of the northern city of Mosul.

By 2008, the ISI was describing itself as being in a state of "extraordinary crisis". Its 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 U.S. 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 U.S.-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.

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 Saddam Hussein's rule. These men, nearly all of whom had spent time imprisoned by the U.S. 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. Al-Khlifawi was instrumental in doing the ground work that led to the growth of ISIL.

In July 2012, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to former strongholds from which U.S. troops and their Sunni allies had driven them in 2007 and 2008. He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons. Violence in Iraq had begun to escalate in June 2012, primarily with AQI's car bomb attacks, and by July 2013, monthly fatalities exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008.

Syrian Civil War (2011–present)

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, al-Baghdadi began sending Syrian and Iraqi ISI members experienced in guerilla warfare across the border into Syria to establish an organisation inside the country. Led by a Syrian known as Abu Muhammad al-Julani, 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 government.

As Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (2013–14)

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

On 8 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-Julani 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. The same month, al-Baghdadi released an audio message rejecting al-Zawahiri's ruling and declaring that the merger was going ahead. The ISIL campaign to free imprisoned ISIL members 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. 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 January 2014, rebels affiliated with the Islamic Front and the U.S.-trained Free Syrian Army launched an offensive against ISIL militants in and around the city of Aleppo in Syria. In May 2014, Ayman al-Zawahiri ordered al-Nusra Front to stop its 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. In mid-June 2014, 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 ISIL has undertaken a recruitment drive in Saudi Arabia, where tribes in the north are linked to those in western Iraq and eastern Syria.

As Islamic State (June 2014–present)

See also: ISIL beheading incidents, American-led intervention in Syria, American-led intervention in Iraq (2014–present), Iranian intervention in Iraq (2014–present), Military intervention against ISIL, Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014), and Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War

On 29 June 2014, the organisation proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—known by his supporters as Amir al-Mu'minin, Caliph Ibrahim—was named its Caliph, and the group renamed itself the "Islamic State". As a "Caliphate", it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide. The concept of it being a Caliphate and the name "Islamic State" has been rejected by governments and Muslim leaders worldwide.

In June and July 2014, Jordan and Saudi Arabia 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 ISIL, or tribes that supported ISIL. There was speculation that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri 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, ISIL recruited more than 6,300 fighters, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, some of whom were thought to have previously fought for the Free Syrian Army. On 23 July 2014, Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Totoni Hapilon and some masked men swore loyalty to al-Baghdadi in a video, giving ISIL a presence in the Philippines. In September 2014, the group began kidnapping people for ransoming, in the name of ISIL.

Yazidi refugees and American aid workers on Mount Sinjar in August 2014

On 3 August 2014, ISIL captured the cities of Zumar, Sinjar, and Wana in northern Iraq. The need for food and water for thousands of Yazidis, who fled up a mountain out of fear of approaching hostile ISIL militants, and the threat of genocide to Yazidis and others as announced by ISIL, in addition to protecting Americans in Iraq and supporting Iraq in its fight against the group, were reasons for the U.S. to launch a humanitarian mission on 7 August 2014, to aid the Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar and to start an aerial bombing campaign in Iraq on 8 August.

On 11 October 2014, it was reported that ISIL had dispatched 10,000 militants from Syria and Mosul to capture the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad, and Iraqi Army forces and Anbar tribesmen threatened to abandon their weapons if the U.S. did not send in ground troops to halt ISIL's advance. On 13 October, ISIL fighters advanced to within 25 kilometres (16 mi) of Baghdad Airport.

At the end of October 2014, 800 radical militants gained partial control of the Libyan city of Derna and pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, thus making Derna the first city outside Syria and Iraq to be a part of the "Islamic State Caliphate". On 2 November 2014, according to the Associated Press, in response to the coalition airstrikes, representatives from Ahrar ash-Sham attended a meeting with al-Nusra Front, the Khorasan Group, ISIL, and Jund al-Aqsa, which sought to unite these hard-line groups against the U.S.-led coalition and moderate Syrian rebel groups. However, by 14 November 2014, it was revealed that the negotiations had failed. On 10 November 2014, a major faction of the Egyptian militant group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis also pledged its allegiance to ISIL.

Coalition airstrike on ISIL position, October 2014

ISIL has often used water as a weapon of war. The closing of the gates of the smaller Nuaimiyah dam in Fallujah in April 2014, resulted in the flooding of surrounding regions, while water supply was cut to the Shia dominated south. Around 12,000 families lost their homes, 200 km2 of villages and fields were either flooded or dried up. The economy of the region also suffered with destruction of cropland and electricity shortages.

In mid-January 2015, a Yemeni official said that ISIL had "dozens" of members in Yemen, and that they were coming into direct competition with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula with their recruitment drive.

In January 2015, Afghan officials confirmed that ISIL had a military presence in Afghanistan, recruiting over 135 militants by late January. However, by the end of January 2015, 65 of the militants were either captured or killed by the Taliban, and ISIL's top Afghan recruiter, Mullah Abdul Rauf, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in February 2015.

In late January 2015, it was reported that ISIL members had infiltrated the European Union and disguised themselves as civilian refugees who were emigrating from the war zones of Iraq and the Levant. An ISIL representative claimed that ISIL had successfully smuggled 4,000 fighters, and that the smuggled fighters were planning attacks in Europe in retaliation for the airstrikes carried out against ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria. However, experts believe that this claim was exaggerated to boost their stature and spread fear, although they acknowledged that some Western countries were aware of the smuggling.

In early February 2015, ISIL militants in Libya managed to capture part of the countryside to the west of Sabha, and later, an area encompassing the cities of Sirte, Nofolia, and a military base to the south of both cities.

In February 2015, it was reported that some Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen members had dissented from al-Qaeda and pledged allegiance to ISIL.

On 16 February 2015, Egypt conducted airstrikes in Libya, in retaliation against ISIL's beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians. By the end of that day, 64 ISIL militants in Libya had been killed by the airstrikes, including 50 militants in Derna. However, by early March, ISIL had captured additional Libyan territory, including a city to the west of Derna, additional areas near Sirte, a stretch of land in southern Libya, some areas around Benghazi, and an area to the east of Tripoli.

On 7 March 2015, Boko Haram swore formal allegiance to ISIL, giving ISIL an official presence in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon. On 13 March 2015, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan swore allegiance to ISIL. On 30 March 2015, the senior sharia official of Ansar al-Sharia in Libya, Abdullah Al-Libi, defected to ISIL.

From March through mid-April 2015, advances by Iraqi forces into ISIL-controlled territory were focused on Tikrit and the Saladin Governorate.

In June 2015, the US Deputy Secretary of State announced that ISIL had lost more than 10,000 members in airstrikes over the preceding nine months.

In the same month, three simultaneous attacks occurred; two hotels were attacked by gunmen in Tunisia, a man was decapitated in France, and a bomb was detonated at a Shia mosque in Kuwait. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attacks in Kuwait and Tunisia. ISIL flags were present at the crime scene in France, but ISIL has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

Worldwide caliphate aims

Goals

Since at least 2004, a significant goal of the group has been the foundation of an Islamic state. Specifically, ISIL has sought to establish itself as a caliphate, an Islamic state led by a group of religious authorities under a supreme leader—the 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 al-Baghdadi back to Muhammad, and upon proclaiming a new caliphate on 29 June, the group appointed al-Baghdadi as its caliph. As caliph, he demands the allegiance of all devout Muslims worldwide, according to Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).

When the caliphate was proclaimed, ISIL stated: "The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organisations becomes null by the expansion of the khilafah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas." This was a rejection of the political divisions in the Middle East that were established by Western powers during World War I in the Sykes–Picot Agreement.

Ideology and beliefs

Main article: Ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

ISIL is a Salafi group. It follows an extreme interpretation of Islam, promotes religious violence, and regards those who do not agree with its interpretations as infidels or apostates. According to Hayder al Khoei, ISIL's philosophy is represented by the symbolism in the Black Standard variant of the legendary battle flag of Muhammad that it has adopted: the flag shows the Seal of Muhammad within a white circle, with the phrase above it, "There is no God but Allah". Such symbolism has been said to point to ISIL's belief that it represents the restoration of the caliphate of early Islam, with all the political, religious and eschatological ramifications that this would 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. However, 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 ... 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.

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". Saudi Wahhabi practices also followed by the group include the establishment of religious police to root out "vice" and enforce attendance at salat prayers, the widespread use of capital punishment, and the destruction or re-purposing of any non-Sunni religious buildings. Bernard Haykel has described al-Baghdadi's creed as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism".

ISIL aims to return to the early days of Islam, rejecting all innovations in the religion, which it believes corrupts its original spirit. It condemns later caliphates and the Ottoman Empire for deviating from what it calls pure Islam, and seeks to revive the original Wahhabi project of the restoration of the caliphate governed by strict Salafist doctrine. Following Salafi-Wahhabi tradition, ISIL condemns the followers of secular law as disbelievers, putting the current Saudi government in that category.

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, ISIL regards the Palestinian Sunni group Hamas as apostates who have no legitimate authority to lead jihad and fighting Hamas as the first step toward confrontation with Israel.

Eschatology

One difference between ISIL and other Islamist and jihadist movements is its emphasis on eschatology and apocalypticism, and its belief that the arrival of the Mahdi is imminent. ISIL believes that it will defeat the army of "Rome" at the town of Dabiq in fulfilment of prophecy. Due to its interpretation of the Hadith of the Twelve Successors, it also believes that there will be only four more legitimate caliphs after al-Baghdadi.

Theological objections

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 have denounced it for its beheading of journalists and aid workers. ISIL is widely denounced by a broad range of Islamic clerics, including al-Qaeda-oriented and Saudi clerics.

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 Khawarij—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 of driving a wedge between Muslims.

Territorial claims and international presence

Main article: ISIL territorial claims

  Areas controlled (as of 4 May 2015)

  Remaining territory in countries with ISIL presence

In Iraq and Syria, ISIL uses many of the existing Governorate boundaries to subdivide its claimed territory; it calls these divisions wilayah or provinces. As of June 2015, it had established official branches in Libya, Egypt (Sinai Peninsula), Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and the North Caucasus. Outside of Iraq and Syria, it only controls territory in Sinai and Libya. ISIL also has members in Morocco, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Israel and Palestine, but it does not have official branches in these areas.

Libyan Provinces

Main article: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Libya

Current military situation in Libya:

  Under the control of ISIL and Ansar al-Sharia

ISIL divides Libya into three historical provinces, claiming authority over Cyrenaica in the east, Fezzan in the desert south, and Tripolitania in the west, around the capital.

On 5 October 2014, the Shura Council of Islamic Youth and other militants in Libya were absorbed and designated the Cyrenaica Province of ISIL. The Libyan branch of ISIL has been the most active and successful out of all the ISIL branches outside of Iraq and Syria. They have been active mainly around Derna and Sirte. On 4 January 2015, ISIL forces in Libya seized control of the eastern countryside of Sabha, executing 14 Libyan soldiers in the process. They temporarily controlled part of Derna before being driven out in Mid 2015.

There are fears that ISIL will use their new bases in Libya to smuggle Islamic State fighters posing as refugees into the European Union.

Sinai Province

On 10 November 2014, many members of the group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis took an oath of allegiance to al-Baghdadi. Following this the group assumed the designation Wilayat Sinai (Sinai Province). They are estimated to have 1,000–2,000 fighters. A faction of the Sinai group also operates in the Gaza Strip, calling itself the Islamic State in Gaza.

Algerian Province

Members of Jund al-Khilafah swore allegiance to ISIL in September 2014. ISIL in Algeria gained notoriety when it beheaded French tourist Herve Gourdel in September 2014. Since then, the group has largely been silent, with reports that its leader Khalid Abu-Sulayman was killed by Algerian forces in December 2014.

Khorasan Province

In November 2014, Jundallah, Tehreek-e-Khilafat, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar pledged allegiance to ISIL, giving the organization an active presence in Pakistan. However, on 12 March 2015, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar left ISIL and rejoined Tehrik-i-Taliban.

On 29 January 2015, Hafiz Saeed Khan and Abdul Rauf swore an oath of allegiance to al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIL. Khan was named as the Wāli (Governor) of the Wilayat (Province) and Rauf as his deputy. The province includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, and "other nearby lands".

On 9 February 2015, Mullah Abdul Rauf was killed by a NATO airstrike. On 18 March 2015, Hafiz Wahidi, ISIL's replacement deputy Emir in Afghanistan, was killed by the Afghan Armed Forces, along with 9 other ISIL militants who were accompanying him. On 10 July 2015, Hafiz Saeed Khan, the Emir of ISIL's Khorasan Province, was reportedly killed in U.S. drone strike in eastern Afghanistan.

On 13 March of the same year, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan swore allegiance to ISIL. Taliban fighters received support from militants affiliated to ISIL in the 2015 Taliban assault on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz. The militants came from mainly Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, according to the BBC.

However, also in March and April, there were reports of Taliban forces clashing with ISIL affiliated militants in the south of Afghanistan, especially in the Kandahar and Helmand provinces.

In June, Reuters received reports that villages in several districts of Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar Province were captured from the Taliban by ISIL sympathizers.

Yemen

Current military situation in Yemen:

  Controlled by the Revolutionary Committee

  Controlled by the Hadi-led government and the Southern Movement

  Controlled by Ansar al-Sharia/AQAP forces

On 13 November 2014, unidentified militants in Yemen pledged allegiance to ISIL, by December 2014, ISIL had built an active presence inside of Yemen, with their recruitment drive bringing them into direct competition with al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). In February 2015, it was reported that some members of the Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen had split from AQAP and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. As the Yemeni Civil War escalated in March 2015, at least 7 ISIL Wilayat, named after existing provincial boundaries in Yemen, claimed responsibility for attacks against the Houthis, including the Hadhramaut Province, the Shabwah Province, and the Sana'a Province.

Shi'a Houthis (Revolutionary Committee) are fighting against the Islamic State, Ansar al-Sharia/AQAP forces, and Saudi Arabia. U.S. supports the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen against the Houthis, but many in US SOCOM reportedly favor Houthis, as they have been an effective force in order to roll back al-Qaeda and recently ISIL in Yemen, "something that hundreds of U.S. drone strikes and large numbers of advisers to Yemen’s military had failed to accomplish". The Guardian reported that "As another 50 civilians die in the forgotten war, only Isis and al-Qaida are gaining from a conflict tearing Yemen apart and leaving 20 million people in need of aid."

West African Province

On 7 March 2015, Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant via an audio message posted on the organisation's Twitter account. On 12 March 2015, ISIL's spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani released an audiotape in which he welcomed the pledge of allegiance, and described it as an expansion of the group's caliphate to West Africa. ISIL publications from late March 2015 began referring to members of Boko Haram as part of Wilayat Gharb Afriqiya (West Africa Province).

North Caucasus Province

Some commanders of the Caucasus Emirate in Chechnya and Dagestan switched their allegiance to ISIL in late 2014 and early 2015. On 23 June 2015, ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani accepted the pledges of allegiance and announced a new Wilayat Qawqaz (North Caucasus Province) under the leadership of Rustam Asildarov.

Other areas of operation

• Unidentified militants in Saudi Arabia pledged allegiance to ISIL - designated as a province of ISIL.
• The Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade (Lebanon) pledged allegiance to ISIL.
• Sons of the Call for Tawhid and Jihad (Jordan) pledged allegiance to ISIL.

Leadership and governance

Further information: List of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant members

Mugshot of al-Baghdadi by U.S. armed forces while in detention at Camp Bucca in 2004

The group is headed and run by al-Baghdadi, with a cabinet of advisers. There are two deputy leaders, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani (KIA) for Iraq and Abu Ali al-Anbari for Syria, and 12 local governors in Iraq and Syria. A third man, Abu Ala al-Afri is also believed to hold a prominent position within the group, having been rumored to be the deputy leader of ISIL. Unusually, all three are believed to be ethnic Turkmens. The former Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein was also said to have had senior Turkmen within his inner circle.

Beneath the leaders are 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. The majority of the ISIL's leadership is dominated by Iraqis, especially among former members of Saddam Hussein's government. It has been reported that Iraqis and Syrians have been given greater precedence over other nationalities within ISIL due to the fact that the group need the loyalties of the local Sunni populations in both Syria and Iraq in order to be sustainable. Other reports have indicated however that Syrians are at a disadvantage to foreign members of ISIL, with some native Syrian fighters resenting alleged 'favoritism' towards foreigners over pay and accommodation.

File:Al-Furqān Media Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.png

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon in the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul (July 2014)

The Wall Street Journal estimated in September 2014 that eight million Iraqis and Syrians live in areas controlled by ISIL. Ar-Raqqah in Syria is the de facto headquarters, 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 government maintained their jobs after pledging allegiance to ISIL. Institutions, restored and restructured, provided their respective 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 programme in the areas under its control in Iraq and Syria, which includes social services, religious lectures and da'wah—proselytising—to local populations. It also performs public services such as repairing roads and maintaining the electricity supply.

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.

Non-combatants

Although ISIL attracts followers from different parts of the world by promoting the image of holy war, not all of their recruits end up in combatant roles. There have been several cases of new recruits who expected to be mujihadeen that returned from Syria disappointed by the everyday jobs that had been assigned to them, like drawing water or cleaning toilets, or by the ban imposed on use of mobile phones during military training sessions.

ISIL also publishes material directed to women. Although women are not allowed to take up arms, media groups encourage them to play supportive roles within ISIL: providing first aid, cooking, nursing and sewing, to become "good wives of jihad".

Designation as a terrorist organisation

Main articles: List of designated terrorist organizations and Terrorism

Organisation	Date	Body	References
Multinational organisations
United Nations	18 October 2004 (as al-Qaeda in Iraq) 30 May 2013 (after separation from al‑Qaeda)	United Nations Security Council
European Union	2004	EU Council (via adoption of UN al-Qaida Sanctions List)
Nations
United Kingdom	March 2001 (as part of al-Qaeda) 20 June 2014 (after separation from al‑Qaeda)	Home Secretary of the Home Office
United States	17 December 2004 (as al-Qaeda in Iraq)	United States Department of State
Australia	2 March 2005 (as al-Qaeda in Iraq) 14 December 2013 (after separation from al‑Qaeda)	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
Indonesia	1 August 2014	National Counter-terrorism Agency id
United Arab Emirates	20 August 2014	United Arab Emirates Cabinet
Malaysia	24 September 2014	Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Egypt	30 November 2014	The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters
India	16 December 2014	Ministry of Home Affairs
Russia	29 December 2014	Supreme Court of Russia
Kyrgyzstan	25 March 2015	Kyrgyz State Committee of National Security
Syria

The United Nations Security Council in its Resolution 1267 (1999) described Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda associates as operators of a network of terrorist training camps. The UN's Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee first listed ISIL in its Sanctions List under the name "Al-Qaida in Iraq" on 18 October 2004, as an entity/group associated with al-Qaeda. On 2 June 2014, the group was added to its listing under the name "Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant". The European Union adopted the UN Sanctions List in 2002.

Many world leaders and government spokespeople have called ISIL a terrorist group or banned it, without their countries having formally designated it as such. Some examples:

The Government of Germany banned ISIL in September 2014. Activities banned include donations to the group, recruiting fighters, holding ISIL meetings and distributing its propaganda, flying ISIL flags, wearing ISIL symbols and all ISIL activities. “The terror organisation Islamic State is a threat to public safety in Germany as well,” de Mazière said. “Today’s ban is directed solely against terrorists who abuse religion for their criminal goals.” The ban does not mean ISIL has been outlawed as a foreign terrorist organisation, as that requires a court judgement.

In October 2014, Switzerland banned ISIL's activities in the country, including propaganda and financial support of the fighters, with prison sentences as potential penalties.

In mid-December 2014, India banned ISIL, after arresting the operator of a pro-ISIL Twitter account.

Media sources worldwide have also described ISIL as terrorist.

Human rights abuse and war crime findings

In July 2014, the BBC reported the United Nations' chief investigator as stating: "Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) may be added to a list of war crimes suspects in Syria." By June 2014, according to United Nations reports, ISIL had killed hundreds of prisoners of war and over 1,000 civilians. In August 2014, the UN accused ISIL of committing "mass atrocities" and war crimes, including the mass killing of up to 250 Syrian Army soldiers near Tabqa Air base. Other known killings of military prisoners took place in Camp Speicher, where 1,095–1,700 Iraqi soldiers were shot and "thousands" more went "missing", and the Shaer gas field, where 200 Syrian soldiers were shot. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that they were performing "widespread ethnic and religious cleansing in the areas under their control".

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". Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad, the newly appointed 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.

In November 2014, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said that ISIL was committing crimes against humanity. A report by Human Rights Watch in November 2014 accused ISIL groups in control of Derna, Libya of war crimes and human rights abuses and of terrorising residents. Human Rights Watch documented three apparent summary executions and at least ten public floggings by the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which joined ISIL in November. It also documented the beheading of three Derna residents and dozens of seemingly politically motivated assassinations of judges, public officials, members of the security forces and others. Sarah Leah Watson, Director of HRW Middle East and North Africa, said: "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing."

Speaking of ISIL's methods, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has stated that the group "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey".

Religious and minority group persecution

See also: Persecution of Assyrians by ISIL, Persecution of Yazidis by ISIL, and Arabization

Yazidi refugees on Mount Sinjar in August 2014

ISIL compels people in the areas that it controls to declare Islamic creed and live according to its interpretation of Sunni Islam and sharia law. There have been many reports of the group's use of death threats, torture and mutilation to compel conversion to Islam, and of clerics being killed for refusal to pledge allegiance to the so-called "Islamic State". ISIL directs violence against Shia Muslims, Alawites, indigenous Assyrian, Chaldean, Syriac and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans in particular.

ISIL fighters are targeting Syria's minority Alawite sect. Islamic State and affiliated jihadist groups reportedly took the lead in an offensive on Alawite villages in Latakia Governorate of Syria in August 2013.

Amnesty International has held ISIL responsible for the ethnic cleansing of ethnic and religious minority groups in northern Iraq on a "historic scale". In a special report released on 2 September 2014, 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, large parts of which came under ISIL's control.

Among the known killings of religious and minority group civilians carried out by ISIL are those in the villages and towns of Quiniyeh (70–90 Yazidis killed), Hardan (60 Yazidis killed), Sinjar (500–2,000 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), and in Tal Afar prison, Iraq (200 Yazidis killed for refusing conversion). The UN estimated that 5,000 Yazidis were killed by ISIL during the takeover of parts of northern Iraq in August 2014. In late May 2014, 150 Kurdish boys from Kobani aged 14–16 were abducted and subjected to torture and abuse, according to Human Rights Watch. In the Syrian towns of Ghraneij, Abu Haman and Kashkiyeh 700 members of the Sunni Al-Shaitat tribe were killed for attempting an uprising against ISIL control. The UN reported that in June 2014 ISIL had killed a number of Sunni Islamic clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to it.

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.

On 23 February 2015, in response to a major Kurdish offensive in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, ISIL abducted 150 Assyrian Christians from villages near Tal Tamr (Tell Tamer) in northeastern Syria, after launching a large offensive in the region.

It was claimed that ISIL campaigns against Kurdish and Yezidi enclaves in Iraq and Syria were a part of organized Arabization plans. For instance, a Kurdish official in Iraqi Kurdistan claimed that the ISIL campaign in Sinjar was a case of Arabization campaign.

Treatment of civilians

See also: Killing of captives by ISIL

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 a UN report of ISIL militants murdering Iraqi Army soldiers and 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul. The UN 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 UN 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 province. According to Reuters, 1,878 people were killed in Syria by ISIL during the last six months of 2014, most of them civilians.

In Mosul, ISIL has implemented a sharia school curriculum which bans the teaching of 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. A cleric told Reuters in Mosul that ISIL gunmen had ordered him to read out the warning in his mosque when worshippers gathered. ISIL ordered the faces of both male and female mannequins to be covered, in an order which also banned the use of naked mannequins. In Ar-Raqqah the group uses its two battalions of female fighters in the city to enforce compliance by women with its strict laws on individual conduct.

ISIL released 16 notes labelled "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 the Muslim custom of banning the sale and use of alcohol, 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".

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

ISIL carried out executions on both men and women who were accused of various acts and found guilty of crimes against Islam such as homosexuality, adultery, watching pornography, usage and possession of contraband, rape, blasphemy, witchcraft, renouncing Islam and murder. Before the accused are executed their charges are read toward them and the spectators. Executions take various forms, including stoning to death, crucifixions, beheadings, burning people alive, and throwing people from tall buildings.

Child soldiers

See also: Military use of children

ISIL has recruited Iraqi children as young as nine to its ranks, who can be seen with masks on their faces and guns in their hands patrolling the streets of Mosul. According to a report by the magazine Foreign Policy, children as young as six are recruited or kidnapped and sent to military and religious training camps, where they practise beheading with dolls and are indoctrinated with the religious views of ISIL. Children are used as human shields on front lines and to provide blood transfusions for Islamic State soldiers, according to Shelly Whitman of the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative. The second installment of a Vice News documentary about ISIL focused on how the group is specifically grooming children for the future. A spokesman told VICE News that those under the age of 15 go to sharia camp to learn about religion, while those older than 16 can go to military training camp. Children are also used for propaganda. According to a UN report, "In mid-August, ISIL entered a cancer hospital in Mosul, forced at least two sick children to hold the ISIL flag and posted the pictures on the internet." Misty Buswell, a Save the Children representative working with refugees in Jordan, said, "It's not an exaggeration to say we could lose a whole generation of children to trauma."

Sexual violence and slavery

Main articles: Sexual violence in the Iraqi insurgency and Slavery in 21st century Islamism

See also: Islamic views on slavery, Ma malakat aymanukum, Raptio, and Wartime sexual violence

There are many reports of sexual abuse and enslavement in ISIL controlled areas of women and girls, predominantly from the minority Christian and Yazidi communities. 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 using women as sex slaves and that women living under their control were being captured and raped. Fighters are told that they are free to have sex with or rape non-Muslim captive women. A 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." Speaking of Yazidi women captured by ISIL, Nazand Begikhani said, "These women have been treated like cattle... They have been subjected to physical and sexual violence, including systematic rape and sex slavery. They've been exposed in markets in Mosul and in Raqqa, Syria, carrying price tags." This evidence contradicts a report from Vice News documenting the lives of citizens within Ar-Raqqah. Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, a 22-year-old resident, and member of the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS), dismissed the notion of Yazidi girls brought as sex slaves to Ar-Raqqah as propaganda. However, in February 2015, RSS reported on the subjugation of women, including the presence of sex slaves within the city of Ar-Raqqah.

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 November 2014 The New York Times reported on the accounts given by five who escaped ISIL of their captivity and abuse. In December 2014, the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights announced that ISIL had killed over 150 women and girls in Fallujah who refused to participate in sexual jihad. Non-Muslim women have reportedly been married off to fighters against their will. ISIL claims the women provide the new converts and children necessary to spread ISIL's control. Shortly after the death of US hostage Kayla Mueller was confirmed on 10 February 2015, several media outlets reported that the US intelligence community believed she may have been given as a wife to an ISIL fighter. 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.

In its digital magazine Dabiq, ISIL explicitly claimed religious justification for enslaving Yazidi women. According to The Wall Street Journal, ISIL appeals to apocalyptic beliefs and claims "justification by a Hadith that they interpret as portraying the revival of slavery as a precursor to the end of the world". ISIL appeals to the Hadith and Qur'an when claiming the right to enslave and rape captive non-Muslim women. According to Dabiq, "enslaving the families of the kuffar and taking their women as concubines is a firmly established aspect of the Sharia's that if one were to deny or mock, he would be denying or mocking the verses of the Qur'an and the narration of the Prophet ... and thereby apostatizing from Islam." Captured Yazidi women and children are divided among the fighters who captured them, with one fifth taken as a tax. ISIL has received widespread criticism from Muslim scholars and others in the Muslim world for using part of the Qur'an to derive a ruling in isolation, rather than considering the entire Qur'an and Hadith. According to Mona Siddiqui, ISIL's "narrative may well be wrapped up in the familiar language of jihad and 'fighting in the cause of Allah', but it amounts to little more than destruction of anything and anyone who doesn't agree with them"; she describes ISIL as reflecting a "lethal mix of violence and sexual power" and a "deeply flawed view of manhood". Dabiq describes "this large-scale enslavement" of non-Muslims as "probably the first since the abandonment of Shariah law".

In late 2014, ISIL released a pamphlet that focused on the treatment of female slaves. It claims that the Quran allows fighters to have sex with captives, including adolescent girls, and to beat slaves as discipline. The pamphlet's guidelines also allow fighters to trade slaves, including for sex, as long as they have not been impregnated by their owner. Charlie Winter, a researcher at the counter-extremist think tank Quilliam, described the pamphlet as "abhorrent". In response to this document Abbas Barzegar, a religion professor at Georgia State University, said Muslims around the world find ISIL's "alien interpretation of Islam grotesque and abhorrent". Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world have rejected the validity of these claims, claiming that the reintroduction of slavery is un-Islamic, that they are required to protect "People of the Scripture" including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Yazidis, and that ISIL's fatwas are invalid due to their lack of religious authority and the fatwas' inconsistency with Islam.

The Independent reported in 2015 that the usage of Yazidi sex slaves was creating friction among fighters within ISIL. Sajad Jiyad, a Research Fellow and Associate Member at the Iraqi Institute for Economic Reform, told The Independent that many ISIL supporters and fighters had been in denial about the trafficking of kidnapped Yazidi women until a Dabiq article justifying the practice was published. According to The Independent, the practice is still continuing to polarize members among the ranks of the extremist group.

Attacks on members of the press

The Committee to Protect Journalists states: "Without a free press, few other human rights are attainable." ISIL has tortured and murdered local journalists, creating what Reporters Without Borders calls "news blackholes" in areas controlled by ISIL. ISIL fighters have reportedly been given written directions to kill or capture journalists.

In December 2013, two suicide bombers stormed the headquarters of TV station Salaheddin and killed five journalists, after accusing the station of "distorting the image of Iraq's Sunni community". Reporters Without Borders reported that on 7 September 2014, ISIL seized and on 11 October publicly beheaded Raad al-Azzawi, a TV Salaheddin cameraman from the village of Samra, east of Tikrit. As of October 2014, according to the Journalistic Freedoms Observatory, ISIL is holding nine journalists and has nine others under close observation in Mosul and Salahuddin province.

File:John Cantlie inside Mosul.png

British journalist John Cantlie held hostage by ISIL

During 2013 and part of 2014, an ISIL unit nicknamed the Beatles acquired and held 12 Western journalists hostage, along with aid workers and other foreign hostages, totalling 23 or 24 known hostages. A Polish journalist Marcin Suder was captured in July 2013 but escaped four months later. The unit executed American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and released beheading videos. Eight of the other journalists were released for ransom: Danish journalist Daniel Rye Ottosen, French journalists Didier François, Edouard Elias, Nicolas Hénin, and Pierre Torres, and Spanish journalists Marc Marginedas, Javier Espinosa, and Ricardo García Vilanova. The unit continues to hold hostage British journalist John Cantlie and a female aid worker.

Cyber-security group the Citizen Lab released a report finding a possible link between ISIL and a digital attack on the Syrian citizen media group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RSS). Supporters of the media group received an emailed link to an image of supposed airstrikes, but clicking on the link introduced malware to the user's computer that sends details of the user's IP address and system each time it restarts. That information has been enough to allow ISIL to locate RSS supporters. "The group has been targeted for kidnappings, house raids, and at least one alleged targeted killing. At the time of that writing, ISIL was allegedly holding several citizen journalists in Raqqa", according to the Citizen Lab report.

On 8 January 2015, ISIL members in Libya claimed to have executed Tunisian journalists Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari who disappeared in September 2014. Also in January 2015, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto Jogo was kidnapped and beheaded, after a demand for a $200 million ransom payment was not met.

Beheadings and mass executions

Main article: ISIL beheading incidents

See also: Beheading video and Beheading in Islamism

An unknown number of Syrians and Iraqis, several Lebanese soldiers, at least ten Kurds, two American journalists, one American and two British aid workers, and three Libyans have been beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIL uses beheadings to intimidate local populations and has released a series of propaganda videos aimed at Western countries. They also engage in public and mass executions of Syrian and Iraqi soldiers and civilians, sometimes forcing prisoners to dig their own graves before shooting lines of prisoners and pushing them in. ISIL was reported to have beheaded about 100 foreign fighters as deserters who tried to leave Raqqa.

Destruction of cultural and religious heritage

Main article: Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL

UNESCO's Director-General Irina Bokova has warned that ISIL is destroying Iraq's cultural heritage, in what she has called "cultural cleansing". "We don't have time to lose because extremists are trying to erase the identity, because they know that if there is no identity, there is no memory, there is no history", she said. Referring to the ancient cultures of Christians, Yazidis and other minorities, she said, "This is a way to destroy identity. You deprive them of their culture, you deprive them of their history, their heritage, and that is why it goes hand in hand with genocide. Along with the physical persecution they want to eliminate – to delete – the memory of these different cultures. ... we think this is appalling, and this is not acceptable." Saad Eskander, head of Iraq's National Archives said, "For the first time you have cultural cleansing... For the Yazidis, religion is oral, nothing is written. By destroying their places of worship ... you are killing cultural memory. It is the same with the Christians – it really is a threat beyond belief."

In July 2014, ISIL demolished the mosque dedicated to Jonah in Mosul

To finance its activities, ISIL is stealing artefacts from Syria and Iraq and sending them to Europe to be sold. It is estimated that ISIL raises US$200 million a year from cultural looting. UNESCO has asked for United Nations Security Council controls on the sale of antiquities, similar to those imposed after the 2003 Iraq War. UNESCO is working with Interpol, national customs authorities, museums, and major auction houses in attempts to prevent looted items from being sold. ISIL occupied Mosul Museum, the second most important museum in Iraq, as it was about to reopen after years of rebuilding following the Iraq War, saying that the statues were against Islam and threatening to destroy the museum's contents.

ISIL considers worshipping at graves tantamount to idolatry, and seeks to purify the community of unbelievers. It has used bulldozers to crush buildings and archaeological sites. Bernard Haykel has described al-Baghdadi's creed as "a kind of untamed Wahhabism", saying, "For Al Qaeda, violence is a means to an ends; for ISIS, it is an end in itself". 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 the attempted destruction of the Hadba minaret at the 12th-century Great Mosque of Al-Nuri have been described as "an unchecked outburst of extreme Wahhabism". "There were explosions that destroyed buildings dating back to the Assyrian era", said National Museum of Iraq director Qais Rashid, referring to the destruction of the shrine of Yunus. He cited another case where "Daesh (ISIL) gathered over 1,500 manuscripts from convents and other holy places and burnt all of them in the middle of the city square". In March 2015, ISIL reportedly bulldozed the 13th-century BC Assyrian city of Nimrud, believing its sculptures to be idolatrous. UNESCO head, Irina Bokova, deemed this to be a war crime.

There is also the fear that warfare waged on any side will harm cultural heritage. "The worst thing about wars is that they do not distinguish between the past and the future", Mosul calligrapher and conservationist Abdallah Ismail told a local correspondent for the German-funded publication Niqash.org. He suggested that ISIL was "taking the pulse" of the local population to see how it would react to its appetite for destruction. Philippe Lalliot, France's ambassador to UNESCO gave this perspective: "When people die in their tens of thousands, must we be concerned about cultural cleansing? Yes, definitely yes ... It's because culture is a powerful incentive for dialogue that the most extreme and the most fanatical groups strive to annihilate it." According to the London Charter and several Hague Conventions, the deliberate destruction of historical sites and places of worship, unless such destruction is a necessity during war, is a war crime.

Criticism

Islamic criticism

ISIL has received severe criticism from other Muslims, especially religious scholars and theologians. In late August 2014, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al ash-Sheikh, condemned the Islamic State and al-Qaeda saying, "Extremist and militant ideas and terrorism which spread decay on Earth, destroying human civilisation, are not in any way part of Islam, but are enemy number one of Islam, and Muslims are their first victims". In late September 2014, 126 Sunni imams and Islamic scholars—primarily Sufi—from around the Muslim world signed an open letter to the Islamic State's leader al-Baghdadi, explicitly rejecting and refuting his group's interpretations of Islamic scriptures, the Qur'an and hadith, used by it to justify its actions. "[You] have misinterpreted Islam into a religion of harshness, brutality, torture and murder ... this is a great wrong and an offence to Islam, to Muslims and to the entire world", the letter states. It rebukes the Islamic State for its killing of prisoners, describing the killings as "heinous war crimes" and its persecution of the Yazidis of Iraq as "abominable". Referring to the "self-described 'Islamic State'", the letter censures the group for carrying out killings and acts of brutality under the guise of jihad—holy struggle—saying that its "sacrifice" without legitimate cause, goals and intention "is not jihad at all, but rather, warmongering and criminality". 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. Other scholars have described the group as not Sunnis, but Khawarij.

Kurdish demonstration against ISIL in Vienna, Austria, 10 October 2014

The group's declaration of a caliphate has been criticised 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. The group's execution of Muslims for breach of traditional sharia law while violating it itself (encouraging women to emigrate to its territory, traveling without a Wali—male guardian—and in violation of his wishes) has been criticized; as has its love of archaic imagery (horsemen and swords) while engaging in bid‘ah (religious innovation) in establishing female religious police (known as al-Khansa' Brigades).

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 led 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.

International criticism

The group has attracted widespread criticism internationally for its extremism, from governments and international bodies such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. On 24 September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon stated: "As Muslim leaders around the world have said, groups like ISIL – or Da’ish – have nothing to do with Islam, and they certainly do not represent a state. They should more fittingly be called the 'Un-Islamic Non-State'." The group was described as a cult in a Huffington Post column by notable cult authority Steven Hassan.

Criticism of the name "Islamic State" and "caliphate" declaration

The group's declaration of a new caliphate in June 2014 and adoption of the name "Islamic State" have been criticised and ridiculed by Muslim scholars and rival Islamists both inside and outside the territory it controls. In a speech in September 2014, President Obama said that ISIL is not "Islamic" on the basis that no religion condones the killing of innocents and that no government recognises the group as a state, while many object to using the name "Islamic State" owing to the far-reaching religious and political claims to authority which that name implies. The United Nations Security Council, the United States, Canada, Turkey, Australia, Russia, the United Kingdom and other countries generally call the group "ISIL", while much of the Arab world uses the Arabic acronym "Dāʻish". France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said "This is a terrorist group and not a state. I do not recommend using the term Islamic State because it blurs the lines between Islam, Muslims, and Islamists. The Arabs call it 'Daesh' and I will be calling them the 'Daesh cutthroats.'" Retired general John Allen, the U.S. envoy appointed to co-ordinate the coalition, U.S. military Lieutenant General James Terry, head of operations against the group, and Secretary of State John Kerry had all shifted toward use of the term DAESH by December 2014.

Battle of Kobani

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". When addressing the United Nations Security Council in September 2014, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott summarised the widespread objections to the name "Islamic State" 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.

In mid-October 2014, representatives of the Islamic Society of Britain, the Association of British Muslims and the UK's Association of Muslim Lawyers proposed that "'Un-Islamic State' (UIS) could be an accurate and fair alternative name to describe this group and its agenda", further stating, "We need to work together and make sure that these fanatics don't get the propaganda that they feed off." 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, portrays ISIL as "buffoon-like hypocrites", and has had more than half a million views on YouTube.

Even Osama bin Laden was opposed to the heedless creation of a caliphate.

Views of ISIL as un-Islamic

Mehdi Hasan, a political journalist in the UK, said in the New Statesman, "Whether Sunni or Shia, Salafi or Sufi, conservative or liberal, Muslims – and Muslim leaders – have almost unanimously condemned and denounced ISIL not merely as un-Islamic but actively anti-Islamic."

Views of ISIL as Islamic

The British historian Tom Holland, writing for the New Statesman said, "Islamic State, in its conceit that it has trampled down the weeds and briars of tradition and penetrated to the truth of God’s dictates, is recognisably Salafist. When Islamic State fighters smash the statues of pagan gods, they are following the example of the Prophet; when they proclaim themselves the shock troops of a would-be global empire, they are following the example of the warriors of the original caliphate; when they execute enemy combatants, and impose discriminatory taxes on Christians, and take the women of defeated opponents as slaves, they are doing nothing that the first Muslims did not glory in. Such behaviour is certainly not synonymous with Islam; but if not Islamic, then it is hard to know what else it is."

Hassan Hassan, an analyst at the Delma Institute, wrote in The Guardian that because the Islamic State "bases its teachings on religious texts that mainstream Muslim clerics do not want to deal with head on, new recruits leave the camp feeling that they have stumbled on the true message of Islam".

In mid-February 2015, Graeme Wood, a lecturer in political science at Yale University, said in The Atlantic, "Muslims who call the Islamic State un-Islamic are typically, as the Princeton scholar Bernard Haykel, the leading expert on the group’s theology, told me, 'embarrassed and politically correct, with a cotton-candy view of their own religion' that neglects 'what their religion has historically and legally required.' Many denials of the Islamic State’s religious nature, he said, are rooted in an 'interfaith-Christian-nonsense tradition.'" Wood further states, "The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. 'Very' Islamic. Yes, it has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe. But the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam."

In the media

See also: History of Iraq and History of Syria

By 2014, ISIL was increasingly being viewed as a militia rather than a terrorist group. As major Iraqi cities fell to ISIL in June 2014, Jessica Lewis, a former U.S. 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."

While officials fear that ISIL may inspire attacks in the United States from sympathisers or those returning after joining ISIL, U.S. intelligence agencies have found no specific plots or any immediate threat. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel saw an "imminent threat to every interest we have", but former top counter-terrorism adviser Daniel Benjamin has derided such alarmist talk as a "farce" that panics the public.

Former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom David Miliband concluded that the 2003 invasion of Iraq caused the creation of ISIL.

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

Allegations of Turkish support

Further information: Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War § Related criticism of Turkey

Turkey has been accused of supporting or colluding with ISIL, especially by Syrian Kurds. According to journalist Patrick Cockburn, there is "strong evidence for a degree of collaboration" between the Turkish intelligence services and ISIL, although the "exact nature of the relationship ... remains cloudy". David L. Phillips of Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights, who compiled a list of allegations and claims accusing Turkey of assisting ISIL, writes that these allegations "range from military cooperation and weapons transfers to logistical support, financial assistance, and the provision of medical services". Several ISIL fighters and commanders have claimed that Turkey supports ISIL. Within Turkey itself, ISIL is believed to have caused increasing political polarisation between secularists and Islamists.

Turkey has been further criticised for allowing individuals from outside the region to enter its territory and join ISIL in Syria. With many Islamist fighters passing through Turkey to fight in Syria, Turkey has been accused of becoming a transit country for such fighters and has been labelled the "Gateway to Jihad". Turkish border patrol officers are reported to have deliberately overlooked those entering Syria, upon payment of a small bribe. A report by Sky News exposed documents showing that passports of foreign Islamists wanting to join ISIL by crossing into Syria had been stamped by the Turkish government. An ISIL commander stated that "most of the fighters who joined us in the beginning of the war came via Turkey, and so did our equipment and supplies", adding that ISIL fighters received treatment in Turkish hospitals.

Also, authorities in Turkey have confirmed social media reports that an injured Islamic State commander is being treated in a Denizli hospital, saying the militant has every right to receive medical care as he is a Turkish citizen.

Allegations of Qatari support

The State of Qatar has long been accused of acting as a conduit for the flow of funds to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. While there is no proof that the Qatari government is behind the movement of funds from the LNG-rich nation to ISIL, it has been criticized for not doing enough to stem the flow of financing. Private donors within Qatar, sympathetic to the aims of radical groups such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL, are believed to be channeling their resources to support these organisations. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, a number of terrorist financiers have been operating in Qatar. Qatari citizen Abd al Rahman al Nuaymi has served as an interlocutor between Qatari donors and leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Nuaymi reportedly oversaw the transfer of US$2 million per month to AQI over a period of time. Nuaymi is also one of several of Qatar-based al-Qaeda financiers sanctioned by the U.S.Treasury in recent years. According to some reports, U.S. officials believe that the largest portion of private donations supporting ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked groups now comes from Qatar rather than Saudi Arabia.

In August 2014, a German minister Gerd Müller accused Qatar of having links to ISIL, stating "You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops. The keyword there is Qatar". Qatar has denied that it supports Islamist insurgents in Syria and Iraq. Qatari foreign minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah reiterated this stance when he stated: "Qatar does not support extremist groups, including [ISIL], in any way. We are repelled by their views, their violent methods and their ambitions."

Allegations of Saudi Arabian support

Although Saudi Arabia's government rejected the claims, Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki accused Saudi Arabia of funding ISIL. Some media outlets, such as NBC, the BBC and The New York Times, and the U.S.-based think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy have written about individual Saudi donations to the group and the Saudi state's decade-long sponsorship of Salafism around the world, but have concluded that there is no evidence of direct Saudi state support for ISIL.

Allegations of Syrian support

Further information: Bashar al-Assad § Al-Qaeda and ISIL

ISIL attacks in Syria: Jan 1–Nov 21, 2014

  Attacks against Syrian government forces (13%)

  Attacks against other groups (FSA, etc.) (64%)

  Other (23%)

During the ongoing Syrian Civil War, many opposition and anti-Assad parties in the conflict have accused the Syrian leadership of Bashar Assad of some form of collusion with ISIL, whose dominance in the opposition against the Bashar al-Assad government would give that government a basis for its claim to being under attack by "terrorists" and "a secular bulwark against al-Qaida and jihadi fanaticism". Several sources have claimed that ISIL prisoners were strategically released from Syrian prisons at the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The Syrian government has bought oil directly from ISIL, and in March 2015 a European Union report brought to light that the Syrian government and ISIL jointly run a HESCO gas plant in Tabqa, central Syria; the facility continues to supply government-held areas, and electricity continues to be supplied to ISIL-held areas from government-run power plants. United States Secretary of State John Kerry has stated that the Syrian government has tactically avoided ISIL forces in order to weaken moderate opposition such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), as well as "even purposely ceding some territory to them [ISIL] in order to make them more of a problem so he can make the argument that he is somehow the protector against them". An IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center database analysis confirmed that only 6% of Syrian government forces attacks were targeted at ISIL from 1 Jan to 21 Nov 2014, while in the same period only 13% of all ISIL attacks targeted government forces. The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces has stated that the Syrian government has operatives inside ISIL, as has the leadership of Ahrar ash-Sham. ISIL members captured by the FSA have claimed that they were directed to commit attacks by Syrian government operatives.

On 1 June 2015, the United States stated that the Syrian government was "making air-strikes in support" of an ISIL advance on Syrian opposition positions north of Aleppo. The president of the Syrian National Coalition Khaled Koja accused Assad of acting "as an air force for ISIS", with the Defense Minister of the SNC Salim Idris stating that approximately 180 Syrian government officers were serving in ISIS and coordinating the group's attacks with the Syrian Arab Army.

On June 28, 2015, a source close to the Turkish National Intelligence Organization claimed an agreement was made between the Assad regime and ISIS to destroy the FSA in the country's north, continue oil sales, assassinate Zahran Alloush and surrender Tadmur and Sukhna. The sources said that a group of commanders of both sides held a meeting at a gas production plant in Hasaka's al-Shaddadi area on May 28, 2015, not to stop fighting each other, but to focus on destroying a common enemy - the Syrian rebel forces, especially the FSA.

However, it should be noted that ISIS has repeatedly massacred pro-government Alawite civilians and executed captured Syrian Alawite soldiers. Many Alawites support President Bashar al-Assad, himself an Alawite.

Allegations of United States support

Rand Paul, junior U.S. Senator from Kentucky, has accused the U.S. government of indirectly supporting ISIL in the Syrian Civil War, by arming their allies and fighting their enemies in that country. A Syrian rebel spokesmen rejected his statements, saying, “The Free Syrian Army has been fighting ISIS since January and continues to do so at great cost and risk. Thousands of Syrian freedom fighters have died fighting this terrorist threat”.

Abu Yusaf, an ISIL commander, said in August 2014 that Free Syrian Army members who had been trained by U.S., Turkish and Arab military officers had subsequently joined ISIL. In September 2014, some US-backed Syrian rebels and ISIL reportedly signed a "non-aggression" agreement. That report was denied by the Islamic Front, the Syria Revolutionaries Front and other rebel groups, and the fighting between those groups and ISIL continued.

Following the Fall of Ramadi, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, Major General Qasem Soleimani, questioned: "How is it possible for the US troops to be present in Ramadi under the pretext of supporting Iraqi nation and yet do nothing to stop the killings there? Can this fact mean anything other than their involvement in the conspiracy?"

Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theorists in the Arab world have advanced rumours that the U.S. is secretly behind the existence and emboldening of ISIL, as part of an attempt to further destabilise the Middle East. After such rumours became widespread, the U.S. embassy in Lebanon issued an official statement denying the allegations, calling them a complete fabrication. Others are convinced that ISIL leader al-Baghdadi is an Israeli Mossad agent and actor called Simon Elliot. The rumours claim that NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal this connection. Snowden's lawyer has called the story "a hoax." Many ordinary Iranians reportedly believe that an alliance of the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia is directly responsible for the creation of ISIL. The New York Times profiled several Iranians in September 2014, finding that "the claim that ISIS is a creation of the Obama administration has gained wide traction" in Iran, where many normally skeptical Iranians reason that "creating a terrorist organization opposed to Iranian interests is the obvious thing for a superpower to do".

Countries and groups at war with ISIL

ISIL's expanding claims to territory have brought it into armed conflict with many governments, militias and other armed groups. International rejection of ISIL as a terrorist entity and rejection of its claim to even exist have placed it in conflict with countries around the world.

Opposition within Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other nations

Iraq	Levant	Maghreb	Other regions
Iraq-based opponents Iraqi Armed Forces Iraqi Army Iraqi Air Force Special Operations Forces Iraqi Police Service Iraqi Kurdistan Peshmerga Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ ekîneyên Berxwedana Şingal) Sinjar Defence Force (HPŞ) People's Defence Force (HPG) Popular Mobilization Forces Badr Organization Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Peace Companies Kata'ib Hezbollah Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada Kata'ib al-Imam Ali Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas Forces Iraqi Turkmen Front Shabak Militia	Syria-based opponents Syrian Armed Forces Syrian Army Syrian Air Force National Defence Force Ba'ath Brigades Syrian Opposition Free Syrian Army Islamic Front Army of Mujahedeen Islamic Union of the Soldiers of the Levant Sham Legion Criterion Brigades Syrian Turkmen Brigades Syrian Kurdistan People's Protection Units (YPG) Women's Protection Units (YPJ) Syriac Military Council Sutoro Local guerrillas al-Qaeda al-Nusra Front with localised truces and co-operation at times Lebanon-based opponents Lebanese Armed Forces Lebanese Army Internal Security Forces Hezbollah	Egypt-based opponents Egyptian Armed Forces Egyptian Air Force File:Egyptian Rapid Deployment Forces Insignia.png Egyptian Rapid Deployment Forces Libya-based opponents Libyan Armed Forces Libyan Air Force Libyan Ground Forces Abu Salim Martyrs Brigade (Libyan militia) Fajr Libya battalion (Libyan militia) Algeria-based opponents Algerian Armed Forces	South Asia-based opponents Afghan Armed Forces Taliban Pakistan Armed Forces Arabian peninsula-based opponents Yemeni Armed Forces Armed Forces of Saudi Arabia Bahrain Defence Force Kuwaiti Armed Forces Sultan of Oman's Armed Forces Qatar Armed Forces Union Defence Force (UAE) al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Houthis West Africa-based opponents Nigerian Armed Forces Niger Armed Forces Chadian Armed Forces Cameroonian Armed Forces Benin Armed Forces Southeast Asia-based opponents Indonesian National Armed Forces Malaysian Armed Forces Tatmadaw Armed Forces of the Philippines Singapore Armed Forces Royal Thai Armed Forces

American-led Coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

See also: Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve

Airstrikes in Syria by 24 September 2014

The Global Coalition to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Daesh), also referred to as the Counter-ISIL Coalition or Counter-DAESH Coalition, is a US-led group of nations and non-state actors that have committed to "work together under a common, multifaceted, and long-term strategy to degrade and defeat ISIL/Daesh". According to a joint statement issued by 59 national governments and the European Union, participants in the Counter-ISIL Coalition are focused on multiple lines of effort:

1. Supporting military operations, capacity building, and training;
2. Stopping the flow of foreign terrorist fighters;
3. Cutting off ISIL/Daesh's access to financing and funding;
4. Addressing associated humanitarian relief and crises; and
5. Exposing ISIL/Daesh's true nature (ideological delegitimisation).

Operation Inherent Resolve is the operational name given by the US to military operations against ISIL and Syrian al-Qaeda affiliates. Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR) is co-ordinating the military portion of the response.

The following multi-national organisations are part of the Counter-ISIL Coalition:
European Union – declared to be part, most members are participating;
NATO – all 28 members are taking part;
Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf or GCC – all six current members and the two pending members, Jordan and Morocco, are taking part.

Military operations in or over Iraq and/or Syria airstrikes, air support, and ground forces performing training	Supplying military equipment to opposition forces within Iraq and/or Syria in co-operation with EU/NATO/partners	Humanitarian and other contributions to identified coalition objectives
NATO members: United States (Leader) Belgium Canada Denmark France Germany Italy Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Turkey (Peshmerga training and very limited airstrike) United Kingdom CCASG members: Bahrain Jordan (pending CCASG member) Morocco (pending CCASG member) Qatar Saudi Arabia UAE Other: Australia New Zealand (humanitarian aid and Iraqi Army training) Singapore (announced) Part of the anti-ISIL coalition engaged in anti-ISIL military operations within their own borders Iraq Lebanon Egypt Note: Listed countries in this box may also be supplying military and humanitarian aid, and contributing to group objectives in other ways.	NATO members: (also EU members except Albania) Albania Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Estonia Greece Hungary Poland European Union members (not in NATO) Cyprus Other: Bosnia and Herzegovina Note: These countries may also be supplying humanitarian aid and contributing to group objectives in other ways.	NATO members: (who are also EU members, except Iceland) Czech Republic Iceland Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg (humanitarian aid) Romania Slovakia (humanitarian aid) Slovenia European Union members (not in NATO) Austria (humanitarian aid) Finland Ireland (humanitarian aid) Sweden (humanitarian aid) CCASG members: Kuwait (humanitarian aid, airbase use) Oman Other Georgia Japan (humanitarian aid) South Korea (humanitarian aid) Kosovo Macedonia Moldova Montenegro Serbia Somalia Switzerland (humanitarian aid) Taiwan Ukraine

Other state opponents

Iran – ground troops, training and air power (see Iranian intervention in Iraq)

Russia – arms supplier to Iraqi and Syrian governments. In June 2014, the Iraqi army received Russian Sukhoi Su-25 and Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft to combat the Islamic State.

Azerbaijan – security operations within state borders

Pakistan – Military deployment over Saudi Arabia-Iraq border. Arresting ISIS figures in Pakistan.

Other non-state opponents

Arab League—coordinating member response
al-Qaeda

• al-Nusra Front—with localised truces and co-operation at times
• al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
• Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
  

Taliban
Hamas
Kurdistan Workers' Party of Turkey—ground troops in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Syrian Kurdistan
Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan—ground troops in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Syrian Kurdistan
Houthis—Shia faction in Yemen, fighting for control of the country

Al-Qaeda

Al-Nusra Front is a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria. Al-Nusra launched many attacks and bombings, mostly against targets affiliated with or supportive of the Syrian government. There were media reports that many of al-Nusra's foreign fighters had left to join al-Baghdadi's ISIL.

In February 2014, after continued tensions, al-Qaeda publicly disavowed any relations with ISIL, but ISIL and al-Nusra Front are still able to occasionally cooperate with each other when they fight against the Syrian government. Quartz's managing edtior Bobby Ghosh wrote:

The two groups share a nihilistic worldview, a loathing for modernity, and for the West. They subscribe to the same perverted interpretations of Islam. Other common traits include a penchant for suicide attacks, and sophisticated exploitation of the internet and social media. Like ISIL, several Al Qaeda franchises are interested in taking and holding territory; AQAP has been much less successful at it. The main differences between Al Qaeda and ISIL are largely political—and personal. Over the past decade, Al Qaeda has twice embraced ISIL (and its previous manifestations) as brothers-in-arms.

Supporters

Iraq and Syria nationals

According to Reuters, 90 percent of ISIL's fighters in Iraq are Iraqi and 70 percent of their fighters in Syria are Syrian. The article, citing 'jihadist ideologues' as the source, stated they have 40,000 fighters and 60,000 supporters across their two primary strongholds in Iraq and Syria.

Foreign nationals

According to a March 2015 report to the UN Security Council, some 22,000 foreign fighters from 100 nations have traveled to Syria and Iraq, most to support ISIL. The report to UN Security Council filed in late March 2015 warned that Syria and Iraq had become a "finishing school for extremists". (In mid-2014, ISIL leader Abu Bakr had issued a call, "Rush O Muslims to your state ...")

A UN report from May 2015 shows that 25,000 "foreign terrorist fighters" from 100 countries have joined "Islamist" groups, many of them working for ISIL or al-Qaeda.

Groups with expressions of support

One source (Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC)) has identified 60 jihadist groups in 30 countries that have pledged allegiance or support to ISIL as of mid-November 2014. Many of these groups were previously affiliated with al-Qaeda, indicating a shift in global jihadist leadership toward ISIL.

Memberships of the following groups have declared support for ISIL, either fully or in part.

• Boko Haram
• Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters
• Jemaah Islamiyah
• Ansar al-Sharia (Tunisia)
• Abu Sayyaf
• Mujahideen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem
• Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid - (pledged support to ISIL; the majority of the group split off after its leader pledged allegiance to ISIL)
• Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin

Military and resources

Military

Main article: Military of ISIL

File:Islamic State (IS) insurgents, Anbar Province, Iraq.jpg

ISIL fighters seen here in the Anbar province, Iraq.

Estimates of the size of ISIL's military vary widely from tens of thousands up to 200,000.

Foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq

As of early 2015, journalist Mary Anne Weaver estimates that half of ISIL fighters are made up of foreigners. A UN report estimated a total of 15,000 fighters from over 80 countries in ISIL's ranks as of November 2014. US intelligence estimated an increase to around 20,000 foreign fighters in February 2015, including 3,400 from Western countries.

List of nations by ISIL fighter origin (500 or more)

Country	Population
Tunisia	3,000
Saudi Arabia	2,500
Russia	1,700
Jordan	1,500
Morocco	1,500
France	1,200
Turkey	1,000
Lebanon	900
Germany	650
Libya	600
United Kingdom	600
Uzbekistan	500
Pakistan	500

Statistics gathered by nation indicate up to: 3,000 from Tunisia, 2,500 from Saudi Arabia, 1,700 from Russia, 1,500 from Jordan, 1,500 from Morocco, 1,200 from France, 1,000 from Turkey, 900 from Lebanon, 650 from Germany, 600 from Libya, 600 from the United Kingdom, 500 from Uzbekistan, 500 from Pakistan, 440 from Belgium, 360 from Turkmenistan, 360 from Egypt, 350 from Serbia, 330 from Bosnia, 300 from China, 300 from Kosovo, 300 from Sweden, 250 from Australia, 250 from Kazakhstan, 250 from the Netherlands, 200 from Austria, 200 from Algeria, 190 from Tajikistan, 180 from the United States, 150 from Norway, 150 from Denmark, 140 from Albania, 130 from Canada, 110 from Yemen, 100 from Sudan, 100 from Kyrgyzstan, 100 from Spain, 80 from Italy, 70-80 from Palestine, 70 from Somalia, 70 from Kuwait, 70 from Finland, 50 from Ukraine, 40-50 from Israel, 40 from Ireland, 40 from Switzerland, at least 30 from Georgia, 18 from India, and 10-12 from Portugal.

According to a statement of a former senior leader of IS, these fighters receive food, petrol and housing but do not receive payment in wages, unlike Iraqi or Syrian fighters.

Weapons

Conventional weapons

ISIL relies mostly on captured weapons. Major sources are Saddam Hussein's Iraqi stockpiles from the 2003–11 Iraq insurgency and weapons from government and opposition forces fighting in the Syrian Civil War and during the post-US withdrawal Iraqi insurgency. The captured weapons, including armour, guns, surface-to-air missiles, and even some aircraft, enabled rapid territorial growth and facilitated the capture of additional equipment.

Non-conventional weapons

The group has a long history of using truck and car bombs, suicide bombers, and IEDs, and has used chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria. ISIL captured nuclear materials from Mosul University in July 2014, but is unlikely to be able to turn them into weapons. However, according to an unconfirmed report sourced to a Facebook post, the Islamic State started excavating a defunct Syrian nuclear site in mid-2015. Also in its monthly release of the Dabiq magazine, John Cantlie wrote of a hypothetical scenario where ISIL might be able to buy a nuclear weapon from corrupt officials in Pakistan. To which India's Minister of State for Defence said "With the rise of ISIS in West Asia, one is afraid to an extent that perhaps they might get access to a nuclear arsenal from states like Pakistan".

Propaganda and social media

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

The logo of al-Hayat Media Centre, copying the style of Al Jazeera's logo.

ISIL is known for its extensive and effective use of propaganda. It uses a version of the Muslim Black Standard flag and developed an emblem which has clear symbolic meaning in the Muslim world.

In November 2006, shortly after the group's rebranding as the "Islamic State of Iraq", the group established the Al-Furqan Foundation for Media Production, which produces CDs, DVDs, posters, pamphlets, and web-related propaganda products and official statements. It began to expand it's media presence in 2013, with the formation of a second media wing, Al-I'tisam Media Foundation, in March and the Ajnad Foundation for Media Production, specializing in Nasheeds and audio content, in August. In mid 2014, ISIL established the Al-Hayat Media Center, which targets Western audiences and produces material in English, German, Russian and French. When ISIL announced its expansion to other countries in November 2014 it established media departments for the new branches, and its media apparatus ensured that the new branches follow the same models it uses in Iraq and Syria.

File:Al-Furqan Media Productions logo.png

Al Furqan logo

In December 2014, FBI Director James Comey stated that ISIL's "propaganda is unusually slick. They are broadcasting... in something like 23 languages".

From July 2014, al-Hayat 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. The group also runs a radio network called Al-Bayan, which airs bulletins in Arabic, Russian and English and provides coverage of its activities in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

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 organising hashtag campaigns, encouraging Tweets on popular hashtags, and utilising software applications that enable ISIL propaganda to be distributed automatically via 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 publicised 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.

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 one "Cantlie presentation", various current and former US officials were quoted, such as US President Barack Obama and former CIA Officer Michael Scheuer. In April 2015 hackers claiming allegiance to ISIL managed to black out 11 global television channels belonging to TV5Monde for several hours, and take over the company's social media pages for nearly a day. French investigators later reported that they believed the cyber-attack was actually carried out by a Russian hacking group, called APT28, with alleged links to the Russian government.

Finances

ISIL has been flexible in using numerous sources of funding to sustain its operations. According to a 2015 study by the Financial Action Task Force, its five primary sources of revenue are as followed (listed in order of significance):

• Illicit proceeds from the occupation of territory (including control of banks, oil and gas reservoirs, taxation, extortion, and robbery of economic assets);
• Kidnapping for ransom;
• Donations, including through non-profit organizations;
• Material support provided by foreign fighters;
• Fundraising through modern communication networks;

The contribution of such sources was also analyzed in a 2014 study by the RAND Corporation using 200 documents — personal letters, expense reports and membership rosters — which had been captured from Islamic State of Iraq (al-Qaeda in Iraq). 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 obtained information from an ISIL operative which revealed that the organisation 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.

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.

On 11 November 2014, ISIL announced its intent to mint its own gold, silver, and copper coins, based on the coinage used by the Umayyad Caliphate in the 7th century. Following the announcement, the group began buying up gold, silver, and copper in markets throughout northern and western Iraq, according to precious metal traders in the area. Members of the group also reportedly began stripping the insulation off electrical power cables to obtain the copper wiring. The announcement included designs of the proposed coins, which displayed imagery including a map of the world, a sword and shield, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and a crescent moon. Economics experts, such as Professor Steven H. Hanke of Johns Hopkins University, were sceptical of the plans. See also Modern gold dinar.

Oil revenues

Exporting oil from oilfields captured by ISIL has brought in tens of millions of dollars for the group. One US Treasury official estimated that ISIL earns US$1 million a day from the export of oil. Much of the oil is sold illegally in Turkey. In 2014, Dubai-based energy analysts put the combined oil revenue from ISIL's Iraqi-Syrian production as high as US$3 million per day.

In 2014, the majority of the group's funding came from the production and sale of energy; it controlled around 300 oil wells in Iraq alone. At its peak, it operated 350 oil wells in Iraq, but lost 45 to foreign airstrikes. It had captured 60% of Syria's total production capacity. About one fifth of its total capacity had been in operation. ISIL earned US$2.5 million a day by selling 50,000–60,000 barrels of oil daily. Foreign sales rely on a long-standing black market to export via Turkey. Many of the smugglers and corrupt Turkish border guards who helped Saddam Hussein to evade sanctions are helping ISIL to export oil and import cash.

In April 2015, after the fall of Tikrit, ISIL apparently lost control of "three large oil fields", which will have significantly degraded its ability to generate income from selling oil.

Other energy sales include selling electric power from captured power plants in northern Syria; some of this electricity is reportedly sold back to the Syrian government.

Sale of antiques and artefacts

Sales of artefacts may be the second largest source of funding for ISIL, according to an article in Newsweek. More than a third of Iraq's important sites are under ISIL's control. It looted the 9th century BC grand palace of the Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II at Kalhu (Nimrud). Tablets, manuscripts and cuneiforms were sold, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Stolen artefacts are smuggled into Turkey and Jordan. Abdulamir al-Hamdani, an archaeologist from SUNY Stony Brook, has said that ISIL is "looting... the very roots of humanity, artefacts from the oldest civilizations in the world".

Taxation and extortion

ISIL extracts wealth through taxation and extortion. Regarding taxation, Christians and foreigners are at times required to pay a tax known as jizya. In addition, the group routinely practices 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 Iraq government indirectly finances ISIL, as they continue to pay the salaries of the thousands of government employees who continue to work in areas controlled by ISIL, which then confiscates as much as half of those Iraqi government employees' pay.

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

Donations

ISIL is widely reported as receiving funding from private donors in the Gulf states, and the governments of Iraq and Iran have repeatedly accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of financing and supporting the group. Ahead of the conference of the US-led anti-ISIL coalition held in Paris in September 2014, France's foreign minister acknowledged that a number of countries at the table had "very probably" financed ISIL's advances.

Although Iran and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have accused Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding the group, there is reportedly no evidence that this is the case. However, according to The Atlantic, ISIL may have been a major part of Saudi Arabian Bandar bin Sultan's covert-ops strategy in Syria.

Unregistered charity organisations are used as fronts to pass funds to ISIL. As they use aliases on Facebook's WhatsApp and Kik, the individuals and organisations are untraceable. Donations transferred to fund ISIL's operations are disguised as "humanitarian charity". Saudi Arabia has imposed a blanket ban on unauthorised donations destined for Syria as the only means of stopping such funding.

Timeline of events

Main article: Timeline of ISIL related events

See also: Islamic State of Iraq § Timeline, Syrian Civil War § Course of events, Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2014, and Terrorist incidents in Iraq in 2015

Index to main: 2013 events; 2014 events: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December; 2015 events: January, February, March, April, May, June.

"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 Abu Bakr 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.	36	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 militants 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 militants 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.	62 (+1)	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.
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 (+2)	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	28-30	40	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.	23 (+30)	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.	21 (+1)	50	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Russia	22 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 seven people (including four tourists), and wounding seven others (including three tourists) before fleeing the scene.	7	7	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.
Syria	12 June		Sixteen Syrian soldiers were killed by a minefield laid by ISIS.	16	0	Islamic State claimed responsibility
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 5 of them and capturing and wounding the sixth, and freeing the hostages.	0 (+5)	0 (+1)	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 attacks	Militants opened fire 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.	22 (+5)	45	Islamic State claimed responsibility via Al Naba, an ISIL-affiliated newspaper.
Serbia	29 June	2024 attack on the Israeli embassy in Belgrade	A Serbia Muslim convert opened fire with a crossbow at the Israeli embassy in Belgrade, wounding a security guard. The guard responded to the attack, shooting the gunman and killing him.	0 (+1)	1	The perpetrator pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and its leader Abu Hafs. Police also found IS-linked items at the attacker's home, including an IS flag.
Oman	15 July	2024 Muscat mosque shooting	9 people (including the 3 attackers) were killed in a mass shooting at Imam Ali Mosque in Wadi Kabir, Muscat.	6 (+3)	30-50	Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Afghanistan	11 August	2024 Kabul bus bombing	An explosive was detonated on a bus carrying Hazaras in the commune of Dashte Barchi, Kabul, killing 1 civilian and injuring 11-13 others.	1	11-13	Islamic State – Khorasan Province claims responsibility
Russia	23 August	Surovikino penal colony hostage crisis	Four ISIS prisoners armed with knives took prison employees and inmates hostage at the IK-19 maximum security prison in Surovikino. They fatally stabbed nine people, including five employees and injured two other employees. The militants were later killed by snipers, ending the hostage crisis.	9 (+4)	2	Perpetrators claimed that they were ISIS militants and waved flags of the organization. The attackers also claimed they were acting in revenge for the detention of the Crocus City Hall attack perpetrators.
Germany	23 August	Solingen stabbing	A Syrian ISIS member armed with a knife stabbed several people at a festival in the city of Solingen. The attack left 3 people dead and 8 others injured. The perp was later arrested by German authorities.	3	8	IS claimed responsibility for the attack, and later released videos of the attacker, where he cited the wars in Bosnia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Palestine as a reason for the attack. German Authorities also confirmed that the attacker shared the ideology of the Islamic state
Afghanistan	2 September	2024 Qala Bakhtiar bombing	A suicide bomber detonated his explosive vest outside a government building in the Qala Bakhtiar neighbourhood in the Afghanistan capital Kabul, killing six people and injuring thirteen others.	6 (+1)	13	Islamic State claimed responsibility.
	12 September	2024 Afghanistan bus shooting	Gunmen opened fire at a group of Shiite civilians welcoming pilgrims from Karbala, Iraq, in Daykundi Province, killing 15.	15	6	Islamic State claimed responsibility
Azerbaijan	14 September	2024 Qusar attack	IS militants attack Azerbaijani security forces in Qusar District, northern Azerbaijan, killing 7 security personnel and injuring 1.	7 (+1)	1	Islamic State claimed responsibility via its weekly Al-Naba newsletter, 5 days later.

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
• Military intervention against ISIL
• Operation Inherent Resolve
• Boko Haram insurgency
• Human rights in ISIL-controlled territory
• Iran and ISIL
• Killing of captives by ISIL
• List of armed groups in the Syrian Civil War
• List of wars and battles involving ISIL
• Management of Savagery
• Fall of Mosul
• First Battle of Tikrit
• Northern Iraq offensive (August 2014)
• Portrayal of ISIL in American media
• Shia–Sunni relations
• Siege of Kobanî
• Sinjar massacre
• Battle of Baiji (October–December 2014)
• Battle of Ramadi (2014–15)
• Battle of Baiji (2014–15)
• Sinjar offensive
• Al-Hasakah offensive (February–March 2015)
• Second Battle of Tikrit (March–April 2015)
• Tell Abyad Campaign (2015)
• Spillover of the Syrian Civil War
• United Kingdom and ISIL

Bibliography

• Abass, Ademola (2014). Complete International Law: Text, Cases and Materials (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• 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. doi:10.1177/0002716208316650. 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)
• Isis: the inside story. "One of the Islamic State's senior commanders reveals details of the terror group's origins inside an Iraqi prison." The Guardian
• Wood, Graeme (March 2015). What ISIS Really Wants. "The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here's what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it." The Atlantic

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)
• Islamic State – Full-length documentary by Vice News (August 2014)
• "ISIS: Portrait of a Jihadi Terrorist Organization" – Report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center.
• From Chechnya To Syria & Analysis of Russian-speaking Foreign Fighters in Syria
• Counter Narrative - Islamic State as a Religious Army or an Army of religion
• Operation Inherent Resolve airstrike updates
• ISIL frontline maps (Iraq and Syria)
• The Islamic State - Jihadology Research project by Aaron Zelin

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