ISIS is a violent jihadist group based in Iraq and Syria. The group has declared wilayas (provinces) in Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the North Caucasus. ISIS has also waged attacks in Turkey, Lebanon, France, Belgium, Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tunisia, and Kuwait.
Latest
May 20, 2024: An explosive-laden handcart detonates on a road to Kabul in Kandahar, the Taliban’s political headquarters in southern Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least one and injures three others. Multiple sources claim that the bombing had targeted Taliban security forces, and the death toll was significantly higher than what was officially reported. Authorities suspect ISIS-K carried out the attack as they routinely target members of the Taliban and the country’s minority Shiite community.
Overview
Executive Summary:
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is an extremist group formed from al-Qaeda offshoots in Iraq and Syria. Since its formation in 2013, ISIS has worked to sustain a self-declared caliphate in eastern Syria and western Iraq. Ultimately, ISIS seeks to unite the world under a single caliphate, and to that end the group has begun to establish satellite operations in nine countries. Initially, ISIS gained support within Iraq as a Sunni insurgency group fighting what some Sunnis viewed as a partisan Shiite-led Iraqi government. The group has since garnered additional momentum as a result of the Syrian civil war, and has recruited up to 33,000 fighters from around the world. Thousands of foreign ISIS fighters are estimated to have been killed in battle, while some have returned—or are reportedly planning to return—to their home countries.
ISIS finds its origins in al-Qaeda forerunner al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), formed by sectarian extremist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. During the Iraq War and its aftermath, the group experienced a series of setbacks and restructurings, for a while going by the name the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). In June 2014, the group—then led by Iraqi extremist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi—unilaterally declared a caliphate spanning eastern Syria and western Iraq, naming Baghdadi as its “caliph.” In his first speech as “caliph,” Baghdadi made clear that ISIS’s aspirations were not limited to any one region, saying that the group sought to establish governance over all Muslims. Consequently, the organization changed its name from the “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (or the “Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham”) to simply the “Islamic State.”
Although ISIS controlled large swaths of territory across Iraq and Syria at the peak of its territorial control in the summer of 2014, the group lost the last of those territorial holdings over the course of 2017. At its height, ISIS controlled almost 40 percent of Iraqi territory. By April 2017, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces had reduced ISIS’s control of the country to less than 7 percent. On July 10, 2017, the Iraqi government announced the liberation of Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, where Baghdadi had declared ISIS’s caliphate three years earlier. Following the November 17 recapture of Rawa, the last ISIS-held town in Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared military victory over ISIS in the country. In June 2017, U.S-backed forces began an offensive to drive ISIS out of its declared capital in Raqqa, Syria. On October 17, 2017, American-backed forces announced the liberation of Raqqa, and on November 21, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that ISIS had been driven out of Syria by Iranian-backed forces. By December 2018, ISIS retained only a small foothold in the Syrian town of Baghuz along the Syrian-Iraqi border. In March 2019, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an assault on ISIS forces in Baghuz and retook the town.
Notwithstanding ISIS’s territorial losses, security officials expect ISIS to remain a threat and lead an ongoing insurgency in the region. In February 2021, Mazloum Abdi, general commander of the SDF, reported that ISIS is “trying to revive itself” and continues to threaten regional and global security. According to a February 2021 report by the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, ISIS remained a “cohesive organization and continued to operate as a low-level insurgency in Iraq and Syria,” while its strategy, capabilities, and group cohesion “remained largely unchanged.” The report also determined that while the international Coalition and its local partners have prevented ISIS from resurging, they have been unable to degrade ISIS to the point it no longer poses a threat. Observers in Europe allege ISIS remains a threat on the continent, though to a lesser extent than it did when it maintained its caliphate. ISIS no longer has the capabilities to launch large-scale attacks in Europe, but it continues to inspire individuals to carry out smaller attacks such as stabbings and vehicle attacks.
Despite its territorial losses in Iraq and Syria, ISIS continues to maintain and expand its global presence. The group has declared wilayat (provinces, governorates) in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and the North Caucasus. Within the first seven months of 2019, ISIS announced new provinces in India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Central Africa as it sought to reassert itself after the loss of its territory in Iraq and Syria. Citing ISIS’s violent activities in Africa, the United States in March 2021 designated ISIS’s provinces in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Beyond this, the terror group attracts considerable sympathy or has waged attacks in Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, the Philippines, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Palestinian territories. ISIS sympathizers have also carried out lone-wolf attacks in a variety of Western countries such as France and Belgium. In January 2020, ISIS announced a “new phase” that would shift its focus from the remains of its caliphate onto Israel.
ISIS has historically funded itself through extortion, robbery, human trafficking, and the highly lucrative oil industry. However, ISIS lost approximately $500 million in income between 2014 and 2015 due to loss of territory and military setbacks amid sustained coalition airstrikes. The group has also lured significant numbers of recruits through online propaganda, including videos and magazines produced in English, French, German, and a variety of other languages. ISIS recruiters have also been successful on social media platforms and encrypted messaging services such as Telegram.
Under its self-proclaimed caliphate, ISIS imposed sharia (Islamic law) and was notorious for killing civilians en masse, often by public execution and crucifixion. Since losing its territory in Syria and Iraq, ISIS has shifted its strategy in those countries from holding territory to insurgency against the state. ISIS encourages followers to undertake lone-wolf attacks using inexpensive means such as vehicles, knives, and homemade explosives. Despite ISIS’s territorial losses, its propaganda continues to inspire lone-wolf attackers such as Khalid Masood, who killed seven people in a ramming-and-stabbing attack in London in March 2017. While ISIS’s dreams of a global caliphate are unlikely to ever be realized, the group will continue to cause significant damage wherever it is able to gain a foothold. After the fall of Baghuz, defense officials in the region reported that ISIS modified its strategy. Without centralized control, the insurgency has been carrying out small-scale attacks throughout rural territory along the porous border of Iraq and Syria and the informal border of Iraqi Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq.
On October 26, 2019, U.S. forces carried out an operation in Syria’s Idlib province that resulted in the death of Baghdadi. U.S. officials confirmed Baghdadi’s identity using DNA tests of his remains after he detonated an explosive vest. On October 31, ISIS’s Amaq News Agency acknowledged Baghdadi’s death and announced Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla a.k.a. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi as his successor and ISIS’s new caliph. On February 3, 2022, U.S. special forces launched a raid in Atmeh, northern Syria, targeting al-Mawla. At the beginning of the operation, al-Mawla detonated a bomb, killing himself and his family members. On March 10, 2022, ISIS released an audio recording confirming al-Mawla’s death and announcing the appointment of new ISIS leader, Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi. According to the recording, al-Mawla, as well as ISIS’s former spokesman, Abu Hamza al-Qurashi, were “killed in recent days.”
Despite losing its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2019, ISIS remains active beyond the borders it once claimed. According to the U.S. Department of State, ISIS’s affiliates outside of Iraq and Syria caused more casualties in 2020 than in any previous year. U.S. intelligence reports claimed ISIS still had up to 18,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria at the time of Baghdadi’s death. ISIS has also led a low-level insurgency in Iraq and Syria, remaining a “determined and dangerous enemy,” according to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. American military officers believe that ISIS is a growing problem in Afghanistan and, if their operations are not curbed as soon as possible, that the militant group could expand their attacks against the West. Afghan generals have even mentioned the increasing difficulty in fighting off the rebels. On August 17, 2019, a suicide bomber infiltrated a wedding in western Kabul and killed at least 63 people while also injuring another 182. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion came days before Afghanistan’s 100th Independence Day on August 19, 2019, and also coincided with on-going peace talks between the U.S. government and the Taliban. Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, ISIS has continued to target the country’s Shiite minority and strike at civilian and government targets alike. In response, the Taliban government has launched counterterrorism campaigns against ISIS.
Internally displaced people (IDP) camps have reportedly become ISIS’s new frontier for recruitment and radicalization. Tens of thousands of former ISIS fighters and their families live in IDP camps in the Levant, which has provided former militants the opportunity to regroup. At the Kurdish-run al-Hol refugee camp in northeastern Syria, ISIS reportedly exerts more control than the guards stationed there and have enforced sharia law on all of the camp’s inhabitants. In some cases, women are reportedly enforcers for the camp’s “morality brigade,” or have even taken up arms in battle. Women and children, who made up a majority of al-Hol’s 62,000 residents as of early 2021, are particularly vulnerable to deferring to the fundamental agenda that ISIS espouses. The United Nations has condemned the deteriorating security situation at al-Hol and other camps, where residents face starvation, violence, exploitation, and other forms of abuse. Nonetheless, foreign governments have been slow to repatriate their citizens residing in the camps. In early March 2021, Belgium’s government announced it would begin to repatriate children of Belgian jihadists living in al-Hol, noting that the longer children remained in the camp, the greater the chance they would become “the terrorists of tomorrow.” That same month, Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria began putting captured ISIS fighters on trial while calling for the creation of an international tribunal in Syria to judge foreign fighters whose countries refuse to repatriate them.
Doctrine:
ISIS’s overarching goals center on the reestablishment of a global, Islamic caliphate and fostering violent conflict between Muslims and non-Muslims. In October 2015, ISIS’s then-spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani issued a statement urging Muslims around the world to engage in a “holy war” against Russia and the United States, which he claimed were leading a “crusaders’ war against Muslims.” Since the loss of Mosul in Iraq and its self-declared capital in Raqqa, Syria, in 2017, ISIS has transitioned from a territory-holding group to an insurgency in both those countries. Yet unlike al-Qaeda, which views a global caliphate as a long-term goal, establishing an Islamic caliphate remains ISIS’s core objective. Since its official founding in June 2014, this doctrinal commitment led ISIS to hold territory for more than three years across Iraq and Syria, and continue to hold territory in Afghanistan, Libya, and Nigeria.
In his June 2014 speech announcing the creation of the caliphate, ISIS’s late spokesman and director of external operations Abu Muhammad al-Adnani declared that “Without [the caliphate], authority becomes nothing more than kingship, dominance and rule, accompanied with destruction, corruption, oppression, subjugation, fear, and the decadence of the human being and his descent to the level of animals.” On the cover of the first issue of ISIS’s online English magazine Dabiq, the title “The Return of Khilafah” is superimposed over an image of the Arabian Peninsula, literally illustrating the group’s top priority. Its slogan, baqiya wa tatamaddad (remaining and expanding), similarly underscores the point.
ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate cannot function without a caliph, the key figurehead. That role was initially reserved for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, whose so-called legitimacy was likewise established in ISIS’s doctrine. ISIS asserted that Baghdadi was a member of the Islamic prophet Muhammad’s Quraysh tribe, “one of the key qualifications in Islamic history for becoming the caliph.” In his “inaugural speech” launching the Islamic State on June 29, 2014, Baghdadi expanded further on the significance of the caliphate. Most important, he claimed, was that all Muslims submit and pledge allegiance (bay’a) to the caliphate. U.S. forces killed Baghdadi in a raid by U.S. forces in Syria on October 26, 2019. ISIS appointed Amir Muhammad Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla, a.k.a. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, as Baghdadi’s successor.
In January 2020, ISIS released an audio message featuring spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurashi on behalf of al-Mawla. The spokesman called on followers around the world to launch a “new phase” focused on “fighting the Jews and reclaiming what they have stolen from the Muslims….” He called on ISIS fighters in Syria and Egypt’s Sinai to turn Jewish settlements into a “testing ground” for their weapons.
Underpinning the allegiance to the caliphate, ISIS adheres to a literalist interpretation of Sunni Islam, specifically embracing beliefs according to an extremist Salafi vision. Salafis believe that Islam has been tainted by centuries of human revision and interpretation. They call for a reversion to the practices and beliefs of the salaf, the first few generations of Muslims immediately following the Prophet. While Salafism under the Gulf monarchies tends to non-violent “quietism,” ISIS is explicitly willing to use violence in an attempt to return to the days of the salaf. This willingness is based on the conviction that violence is divinely ordained.
ISIS supplements its Salafist worldview with a belief in the revival of takfirist practices. As a Salafi-Takfiri group, the “enemies of Islam” may be Muslim too. Thus, according to ISIS doctrine, almost 200 million Shiite Muslims—as well as Sufis, Yazidis, and Ba’hai—are all apostates and deserving of death.
ISIS also cleaves to a form of millenarianism with the ultimate hope of “bringing about the apocalypse,” according to journalist Graeme Wood. Indeed, ISIS frequently refers to the apocalypse in its various recruitment materials, including magazines, videos, and speeches. According to ISIS’s aptly-named English-language magazine Dabiq, the apocalypse will be preceded by “One of the greatest battles between the Muslims and the crusaders” in the town of Dabiq, located northeast of Aleppo in the Syrian countryside.
Organizational Structure:
ISIS is led by its emir (commander, chieftain, or prince), whom the group proclaimed caliph of ISIS’s self-declared Islamic State in June 2014. Beneath the emir are two chief deputies, who oversaw ISIS territory in Syria and Iraq, respectively. These two deputies and a cabinet of advisers are reported to comprise ISIS’s executive branch, called “Al Imara” or “The Emirate.” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi served as ISIS’s caliph from 2014 until his death in a U.S. raid in Idlib, Syria, on October 26, 2019. Baghdadi’s likely successor, ISIS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, was reportedly killed in a U.S. strike in Syria the day after Baghdadi’s death. ISIS’s Amaq News Agency eulogized Baghdadi on October 31, and announced Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla, a.k.a. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, as his successor. The appointment came after consultations of ISIS’s leadership council, according to Amaq. Amaq did not provide other details of Quraishi’s identity other than referring to him as “emir of the believers” and “caliph.” Al-Mawla killed himself during a raid launched by U.S. Special Forces in Syria on February 3, 2022. On March 10, ISIS announced the appointment of Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi as the group’s new leader. Shortly after, on November 30, ISIS released a statement claiming al-Qurashi was killed in action. The statement also declared Abu al-Hussain al-Hussaini al-Qurashi as the new leader of the terrorist group. Abu al-Hussain had a short-lived career as ISIS’s head. According to Ankara, Abu al-Hussain was killed by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on April 29, 2023, in Syria’s Afrin province. Abu al-Hussain reportedly detonated a suicide vest to evade detainment. However, on August 3, 2023, ISIS released an audio statement in which the group’s spokesman confirmed Abu al-Hussain was killed in clashes with a rival group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Details regarding the location and timeline of his death remain unclear, although HTS controls part of northwest Syria. The group also announced the appointment of Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as the group’s new leader.
Directly under the caliph, but not part of the executive branch, are ISIS’s legislative councils, the Shura Council and Shariah Council. The nine-member Shura Council is reportedly responsible for ensuring that lower councils adhere to ISIS’s religious doctrine, and is also responsible for relaying the caliph’s orders through the rest of the organization. According to terrorism analyst Jasmine Opperman, the council approves lower council decisions that impact the caliphate. It also has the authority to force the caliph to step down if he deviates from ISIS doctrine.
ISIS’s six-member Shariah Council is the group’s “most powerful” body, according to Richard Bennett of the Soufan Group. It was responsible for enforcing its interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) within ISIS’s territory, as well as selecting the caliph. When ISIS conquered new territory, the group’s Shariah Council was responsible for creating a sharia police force and courts to enforce its interpretation of Islamic law.
According to a January 2015 report by CNN, Baghdadi’s two deputies each oversaw 12 governors in their respective territories in Iraq and Syria. The deputies also oversaw ministry-like councils that were responsible for day-to-day functions:
Financial Council: ISIS’s treasury, which oversees oil and weapons sales and other revenue.
Leadership Council: responsible for the organization’s laws and policies. The council’s decisions are approved by Baghdadi. The council also has the authority to depose al-Baghdadi if he strays from ISIS’s ideology.
Military Council: responsible for the organization’s military operations.
Legal Council: responsible for decisions on executions and recruitment. It also handles family disputes and religious transgressions.
Fighters Assistance Council: responsible for providing aid and housing to foreign fighters who come to ISIS’s territory, including moving them into and out of the territory.
Security Council: responsible for police and security oversight of ISIS’s territory. It also carries out executions.
Intelligence Council: ISIS’s intelligence-gathering wing.
Media Council: manages ISIS’s media strategy, including social media.In addition to governing bodies, ISIS operates a secret service wing, previously run by the late Abu Muhammad al-Adnani. This wing, referred to as the Emni, reportedly serves as both an internal police and external operations unit, whose members seek to export terror abroad. According to an August 2016 report by the New York Times, multiple lieutenants are responsible for planning attacks in three distinct target regions: Europe, Asia, and the Arab world. The unit is reportedly responsible for deploying operatives back into Europe, for the purpose of connecting with local ISIS sympathizers and plotting domestic attacks.
At its height in 2014, ISIS controlled approximately 40 percent of Iraq, dwindling down to 6.8 percent by April 2017. In June 2017, ISIS blew up the historic Great Mosque of al-Nuri, where Baghdadi had declared his caliphate in 2014. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called ISIS’s destruction of the over-800-year-old mosque “an official announcement of their defeat.” Also in June 2017, U.S-backed forces began an offensive to drive ISIS out of its declared capital in Raqqa, Syria. U.S.-backed forces in Iraq and Syria liberated Mosul and Raqqa on July 10 and October 17, 2017, respectively. On November 17, Abadi declared a military victory over ISIS in Iraq following the recapture of Rawa, the last ISIS-held town in the country. In Iraq, the United Nations estimated that ISIS used 100,000 people as human shields, and more than 1,000 Syrians were killed in American-led airstrikes during the liberation of Raqqa. Despite these territorial losses, Iraqi security officials expected ISIS to revert to guerrilla warfare and continue carrying out sporadic attacks in the region as part of an insurgency.
ISIS continued to capture and hold new territory in Syria through early 2018 as it engaged rebel and regime forces. On November 21, 2017, ISIS launched a new offensive targeting the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in north Hama, Syria. HTS accused the Syrian regime of aiding ISIS fighters against the rebel group in northern Hama in October 2017, a claim that the Carter Center finds “likely” to be true since the ISIS fighters that attacked HTS first traveled through regime-held territory in large numbers. According to the Carter Center, Russian and regime planes have regularly bombed HTS along its frontline with ISIS while not attacking ISIS fighters in the area. Nonetheless, ISIS has continued its offensive against the Syrian regime, expanding into Idlib in November, and capturing regime-held villages along the Euphrates river in early December.
In May 2018, the U.S.-led coalition began Operation Roundup to eliminate ISIS’s remaining presence. By December 2018, ISIS retained only a small foothold in the Syrian town of Baghuz along the Syrian-Iraqi border. In March 2019, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an assault on ISIS forces in Baghuz. Hundreds of ISIS fighters and their families reportedly surrendered to the SDF, which declared days later that the battle to retake Baghuz was as “good as over.”
ISIS’s October 31, 2019, announcement of Quraishi as its new “caliph” signified that though the group had lost its territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria, it still remained committed to the concept of an expansive caliphate. According to the United Nations, as of 2023, 1.2 million Iraqis remained displaced by ISIS’s insurgency, and more than 6.8 million Syrians remain internally displaced due to the conflict.
Wilayat
Before its military defeats in Syria and Iraq in November 2017, ISIS controlled wilayat (provinces) in both countries including in Raqqa, Idlib, and Hama in Syria, and Ninawa, Kirkuk, and Anbar in Iraq. The terror group also controls provinces across the Middle East and Africa. These provinces begin as local jihadist groups, which then pledge allegiance to ISIS’s caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Since ISIS lost its last territorial hold in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has shifted its focus to its provinces in what could be an attempt to decentralize the group while reaffirming its global presence. In May 2019, ISIS announced the creation of new provinces in India and Pakistan. That July, ISIS announced the creation of a province in Turkey. ISIS’s affiliates in Egypt and West Africa renewed their allegiances to Baghdadi in June 2019. ISIS fighters in Mali and Burkina Faso also renewed their allegiance to Baghdadi that month.
Before accepting a pledge of allegiance and forming a new wilaya, ISIS must receive a proposal detailing the group’s military and governance strategy, as well as identifying a collectively chosen leader. Issue 7 of ISIS’s Dabiq magazine described the process in detail:
“This [approval] process includes documenting their bay’āt [pledge of allegiance], unifying the jamā’āt [assembly] who have given bay’ah, holding consultations to nominate a wālī [governor] and members for the regional shūrā assembly, planning a strategy to achieve consolidation in their region for the Khilāfah [caliphate] so as to implement the Sharī’ah [Islamic law], and presenting all this to the Islamic State leadership for approval.”Below is a list of official wilayat outside of Syria and Iraq:
Afghanistan, Iran, and Central Asia: Wilayat Khorasan
Jihadists in Afghanistan and Pakistan pledged allegiance to ISIS in November 2014. ISIS accepted the pledge in January 2015, officially forming Wilayat Khorasan, and appointed former Pakistani Taliban commander Hafiz Said Khan as leader. The province also included parts of India, Iran, and other parts of Central Asia. A September 2015 U.N. report alleged 70 ISIS militants traveled from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan to form the core of the new wilaya. Other members include former Taliban insurgents and dozens of foreign fighters. In August 2015, the Afghanistan-based jihadist group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) pledged allegiance to ISIS and was subsumed into Wilayat Khorasan.
Wilayat Khorasan claimed its first attack on Afghan forces in September 2015 when it killed three policemen at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan. The group has since continued to carry out deadly attacks and maintain a small stronghold in the region. On March 8, 2017, the group launched a suicide bomb and gun attack at a hospital in Kabul, killing 30 people. As for intended targets, ISIS declared war on Afghanistan’s Shiite, mostly Hazara, population and has regularly claimed responsibility for attacks against the ethnic and religious minority.
There were approximately 1,300 ISIS fighters in Afghanistan as of September 2016, according to General John Nicholson, the highest-ranking U.S. military commander in the country. Nicholson said on September 23, 2016, that ISIS leaders in Syria provide the Afghanistan fighters with money, guidance, and communications support. According to Nicholson, ISIS’s fighters are largely former members of the Pakistan Taliban and primarily based in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar region.
ISIS restructured the Khorasan Province in May 2019 when it announced the creation of separate Pakistani and Indian provinces. ISIS Khorasan continued to operate, claiming responsibility that month for several attacks in Afghanistan. The U.N. Security Council designated the Khorasan Province in May 2019.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of the Afghan government on August 15, 2021, and ahead of the impending full withdrawal of U.S. military forces by August 31, on August 22, 2021, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced that ISIS posed a significant threat to Americans in Afghanistan. According to reports from U.S. intelligence and military officials, ISIS would seek to exploit Afghanistan’s security vacuum and plot attacks against American targets as the Biden administration attempted to evacuate American citizens and U.S. personnel from Afghanistan.
On August 26, a suicide attack was carried out at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The attack began when a suicide bomber—who possessed 20 pounds of explosives packed with ball bearings—detonated himself outside of the airport, near Abbey Gate. According to media reports, as many as 170 people and 13 U.S. service members were killed, with an additional 200 wounded. The Taliban condemned the attack, later launching an investigation into the perpetrators. That evening, ISIS-K issued an official statement on Telegram claiming responsibility for the attack.
The next day, Marine General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command told reporters that U.S. troops in Kabul are preparing for more ISIS-K attacks. U.S. forces are allegedly sharing information with Taliban fighters stationed outside of Kabul’s airport in anticipation of future ISIS attacks that could include car bombs or rocket fire. That same day, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby announced that the Taliban had released “thousands” of ISIS-K militants from U.S. prisons in Afghanistan following their takeover of the country. Kirby did not reveal how many prisoners remain at Bagram Air Base.
On the evening of August 27, 2021, the U.S. military carried out a drone strike in Nangarhar, targeting and killing two “high profile” ISIS-K targets. According to Kirby, the targets were “ISIS-K planners and facilitators.” Another ISIS-K member was wounded in the attack.
As of November 2021, ISIS reportedly had between 2,000 and 3,500 fighters in Afghanistan. On November 17, 2021, U.N. Special Representative Deborah Lyons told the U.N. Security Council ISIS-K had to date carried out 334 attacks in Afghanistan that year while establishing a presence in every Afghan province. According to Lyons, the Taliban have been unable to stop ISIS-K’s growth.
Since seizing power in Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have increased offensive military strikes against ISIS-K targets around Afghanistan. In November 2021, the Taliban began conducting background checks to purge ISIS infiltrators from the Afghan military. On November 15, 2021, the Taliban announced the launch of Operation IS, a crackdown on suspected ISIS hideouts in Afghanistan. That month, the Taliban deployed more than 1,300 fighters to Nangahar province to disrupt ISIS-K operations.
On February 4, 2022, U.S. military officials briefed reporters on the results of an investigation into the ISIS-K bombing at Abbey Gate. The investigation, led by Brigadier General Lance Curtis, interviewed more than 130 people and spanned five countries over three and a half months. The investigation found that none of the casualties were injured or killed by gunfire, contradicting previous claims that casualties were a result of both a suicide bomber and ISIS-K gunmen. According to media sources, the report also determined that a single suicide bomber carried out the attack alone.
Algeria: Wilayat al-Jazair
In 2014, ISIS accepted the pledge of allegiance from Algeria-based terrorist group Jund al-Khilafah, and announced that the establishment of an Algerian governorate, Wilayat al-Jazair. By December 2014, however, Wilayat al-Jazair leader Abd al-Malik Guri (a.k.a. Khalid Abu Sulayman) was killed by the Algerian military.
Wilayat al-Jazair is credited with the September 24, 2014, beheading of French tourist Hervé Gourdel but has been minimally active there in the months since. On October 21, 2015, Wilayat al-Jazair released an audio statement attempting to reassure its supporters that ISIS’s presence in Algeria was secure. During the same statement, however, an ISIS militant urged fighters not to risk their lives unnecessarily, appearing to indicate the underlying vulnerability of ISIS’s Algerian governorate.
Central Africa: Wilayat Central Africa
Baghdadi first mentions a Central Africa province in an August 2018 speech. On April 18, 2019, ISIS claimed responsibility through its Amaq News Agency for a shooting attack in Kamango, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), that killed three. ISIS credited the attack to its affiliate, Wilayat Central Africa, or Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP). It was the group’s first attack claimed in the Congo and the first attack credited to the Central Africa province. ISIS also credited an April 25 attack in the DRC to the group. That attack killed three soldiers. Later in the month, ISIS released a video featuring Baghdadi, who called on ISIS’s supporters to seek revenge for the loss of the group’s caliphate. Baghdadi was seen in the video handling documents, including one called Wilayat Central Africa. Although ISIS-affiliated media portrayed ISCAP as a wilayat encompassing units across central, east, and southern Africa, ISCAP has become synonymous with Islamic State in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC).
Democratic Republic of the Congo: ISIS-DRC
Locally known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), ISIS-DRC is led by Seka Musa Baluku. ISIS-DRC has carried out attacks across North Kivu and Ituri provinces in eastern DRC targeting Congolese citizens and regional military forces. In 2020 alone, ISIS-DRC reportedly killed more than 849 civilians. ISIS-DRC is also known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and Madina at Tauheed Wau Mujahedeen. The U.S. Department of the Treasury first sanctioned ADF and six of its members including Baluku in 2014 for their roles in significant human rights abuses. ISIS-DRC was also designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on March 10, 2021.
Mozambique: ISIS-Mozambique
Led by Abu Yasir Hassan, ISIS-Mozambique pledged allegiance to ISIS in approximately April 2018. Also known as Ansar al-Sunna, the group has killed more than 1,300 civilians since October 2017. ISIS-Mozambique’s attacks have caused the displacement of nearly 670,000 people within northern Mozambique. The United States designated ISIS-Mozambique as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on March 10, 2021. That same month, U.S. forces began training Mozambican troops to fight against an ISIS-driven insurgency that had already killed at least 2,000 people and displaced 670,000.
Egypt: Wilayat Sinai
In November 2014, Egypt’s Ansar Beit al-Maqdis—a jihadist group based in the Sinai Peninsula—pledged allegiance to ISIS and became Wilayat Sinai, ISIS’s Sinai province. The group grew amid the chaos of Egypt’s 2011 revolution, and is known for killing hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police officers.
Since its pledge of allegiance, Wilayat Sinai has accrued an estimated “several hundreds, if not over a thousand” fighters in the Sinai region, according to CIA Director John Brennan. The group has claimed responsibility for an attack on an Egyptian vessel and the downing of a Russian airliner over the Sinai that killed all 224 people on board. On February 9, 2017, Wilayat Sinai claimed responsibility for a number of rocket attacks targeting an Israeli resort in Eilat, an attack that caused no damage or casualties.Following the attack, Wilayat Sinai took to Telegram to claim responsibility and warn that “what is coming is graver and more bitter.”
Beginning in December 2016, Wilayat Sinai launched a campaign against Egypt’s Coptic Christian community. On December 11, 2016, ISIS claimed a suicide bombing at a chapel adjacent to St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, killing at least 28 people during Sunday Mass. On April 9, 2017, ISIS claimed a bombing of St. George’s Church in Tanta and a suicide bombing at St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria that altogether killed at least 45 people. On May 26, ISIS launched its first attack against a monastery when gunmen attacked two buses and a truck carrying Coptic Christians to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 29 people. In February 2017, Wilayat Sinai released a propaganda video declaring Christians to be their “favorite prey.”
On November 24, 2017, militants carrying the ISIS flag carried out a bomb and gun attack on the al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 305 people and wounding at least 128 others in the deadliest attack in the country’s history. Although Egyptian authorities suspect ISIS’s Wilayat Sinai is responsible, the group has not claimed responsibility.
Israeli intelligence has accused Wilayat Sinai of cooperating with Hamas in the neighboring Gaza Strip. Hamas has reportedly used its underground tunnel system beneath the Gaza-Egypt border to transport aid to Wilayat Sinai, while also providing military training and medical aid to ISIS militants in the Sinai. Nonetheless, on January 4, 2018, Wilayat Sinai released an execution video of an alleged Hamas member and called on supporters to attack Hamas in Gaza because the group failed to stop U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017.
India: Wilayat al-Hind
On May 10, 2019, ISIS’s Amaq News Agency announced the creation of a new province in India called Wilayah al-Hind, based in India-administered Kashmir. ISIS claimed credit for clashes with Indian police earlier in the week. Indian police in Kashmir dismissed the claim of a new ISIS province based in Kashmir as propaganda. India formerly fell under the jurisdiction of ISIS’s Khorasan Province, which former members of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan formed in 2015 after pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Khorasan Province previously also included Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of Iran, and other parts of central Asia. ISIS announced a separate province in Pakistan the following week.
Libya: Wilayat al-Tarabulus, al-Barqa, and al-Fezza
ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the creation of Libya’s wilaya in November 2014. Since then, ISIS in Libya has divided its control into three provinces: Wilayat al-Tarabulus (a.k.a. Wilayat Tripolitania) in the west, Wilayat Barqa in the east, and Wilayat Fezza in the south. In January 2015, Wilayat al-Tarabulus attacked the five-star Corinthia hotel in Tripoli, killing nine people including five foreign nationals. The U.S. Department of State designated ISIS’s Libya branch as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2016. Since then, a combination of Libyan forces and U.S. airstrikes are believed to have driven many ISIS fighters from its former stronghold in Sirte. Despite losing ground in Sirte, the group has a presence in other parts of the country.
In 2015, Baghdadi appointed Abul-Mughirah al-Qahtani to oversee ISIS’s provinces in Libya. Qahtani was killed in a November 2015 U.S. airstrike in Derna. In March 2016, ISIS announced Abdul Qadr al-Najdi as its new leader in Libya. Al-Najdi reportedly died in September 2020. In March 2021, forces loyal to Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar arrested the “most prominent leader” of ISIS in Libya, Mohamed Miloud Mohamed, a.k.a. Abu Omar. Mohamed had participated in ISIS’s 2015 takeover of Sirte and reportedly had close ties with al-Najdi.
ISIS’s roots in Libya can be traced back to the spring of 2014, when a group of Libyans fighting for ISIS in Syria and Iraq—the “Battle Brigade—returned to Libya and established the Islamic Youth Shura Council, which then pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Mali and Niger: Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel), formerly Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS)
ISGS is based in Mali and Niger and has carried out multiple attacks in northern Mali as well as neighboring Burkina Faso. In May 2015, Adnan al-Sahrawi and his followers split from al-Mourabitoun and pledged allegiance to ISIS. ISIS’s Amaq News Agency recognized the pledge in October 2016. The ISGS reportedly includes members of the Peul ethnic group from the Mali-Niger border region. Sahrawi and the ISGS have reportedly carried out several attacks on military targets in Niger. The U.S. government sanctioned Sahrawi and ISGS in May 2018. The United Nations sanctioned ISGS in February 2020. During a meeting of G5 Sahel leaders in January 2020, France declared Sahrawi a “major enemy.” The French government estimates ISGS is responsible for the deaths of 2,000 to 3,000 people in the region. French forces killed Sahrawi in a drone strike in August 2021.
On the night of June 11, 2022, French forces deployed under Operation Barkhane, France’s counterterrorism mission in the Sahel, carried out an operation on the border between Mali and Niger, capturing ISGS senior leader Oumeya Ould Albakaye in the process. According to the French Armed Forces Ministry, Albakaye was found with several mobile phones, weapons, and “numerous resources.” According to media sources, Albakaye will be held by French forces for questioning and then handed to the Malian authorities. Albakaye is an explosives expert and served as ISGS’s chief in Gourma, Mali and Oudalan, Burkina Faso. The French army stated that Albakaye is believed to have carried out terrorist attacks against soldiers and civilians in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso to undermine French forces within Mali. Despite successful operations against ISGS, the last of the French forces withdrew from Mali on August 15, 2022, due to ongoing political and security hostilities between Mali’s military government and their now former Western allies.
Since March 2022, ISGS—which had recently rebranded under the name Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel) as the group was declared a separate province—battled with the al-Qaeda affiliate Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) in the region of Menaka and Gao, the insurgent-heavy areas of Mali’s north. Their fighting from March until October 2022 resulted in around 1,000 civilian deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands. Furthermore, according to U.N. analysts, IS Sahel has shifted their operations further south, having seized the town of Talataye in early September 2022. As of August 2023, IS Sahel has not been ousted from Talataye, and continues to be a heavy threat to Mali and Burkina Faso as the two countries, and increasingly Niger, are unable to sustainably curtail the extremist group’s activities. According to the United Nations in August 2023, IS Sahel has doubled the amount of territory they control in Mali since 2022. In particular, the group controls rural areas in eastern Menaka and large parts of the Asongo area in northern Gao.
Nigeria: Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)
ISIS accepted Nigerian-based terror group Boko Haram’s pledge of allegiance in March 2015. Boko Haram, now called Wilayat Gharb Ifriqiyaa or the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has waged an insurgency to impose sharia in northern Nigeria since 2009, resulting in the death of approximately 4,000 civilians in 2015 alone. Boko Haram split into two groups when ISIS appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi as the head of the ISWAP in August 2016. Although Boko Haram founder Abubakar Shekau did not win the endorsement of ISIS, he refused to relinquish his authority and has continued to lead a group of followers under the banner of Boko Haram. Shekau has maintained his allegiance to ISIS and, in March 2017, began including ISIS logos in official Boko Haram videos.
Since the split, the attacks carried out by each faction are sometimes difficult to differentiate. One difference, however, is that ISWAP controls territory in the Lake Chad Basin area in northern Borno State whereas Shekau’s faction controls land in central and southern Borno State, including Boko Haram’s historical territorial stronghold of the Sambisa Forest.
In February of 2019, al-Barnawi was reportedly replaced as the leader of ISWAP. On March 4, 2019, Boko Haram announced that al-Barnawi was demoted to a member of the group’s Shura council, and that Abu Abdullah Ibn Umar al-Barnawi (a.k.a. Ba Idrissa) replaced him as leader. The specific reason for this leadership shake-up is unknown, but it occurred against the backdrop of larger internal disputes within the organization. In early 2020, infighting within Boko Haram continued, and al-Barnawi’s successor Ba Idrissa was similarly purged. It is currently unclear if al-Barnawi survived the infighting and if he is currently alive.
ISIS reinstalled al-Barnawi as leader of ISWAP in April 2021. ISWAP and Boko Haram continued to violently clash, resulting in the death of Boko Haram leader Shekau the following month in a confrontation with ISWAP fighters. In June 2021, ISWAP released an audio message of al-Barnawi confirming Shekau’s death, which he said had been directly ordered by ISIS leader al-Quraishi.
On October 14, 2021, Nigeria’s military confirmed al-Barnawi had been killed. The military did not provide details of the location of or circumstances leading to al-Barnawi’s death. Following al-Barnawi’s death, Malam Bako, a member of ISWAP’s Shura Council, allegedly assumed leadership of ISWAP. Nigerian security forces killed Bako, and another prominent member of ISWAP in an undisclosed location on October 20. In November 2021, Sani Shuwaram was appointed the new leader of ISWAP. On March 20, 2022, Nigerian media reported Shuwaram had been killed, along with multiple other ISWAP fighters, in a Nigerian airstrike in the Sabon Tumbuns general area of Lake Chad. Mallam Bako Gorgore was reportedly named as Shuwaram’s replacement.
According to U.N. analysts, as of early 2022, ISWAP has between 4,000 and 5,000 fighters.
Despite the Nigerian military’s success in targeting Boko Haram members, ISWAP has carried out significant attacks in 2022. On July 5, 2022, ISWAP militants raided the Kuje maximum prison in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. According to media sources, the militants detonated “very high-grade explosives” killing a security officer and injuring three others. While 879 inmates fled, more than half were returned to the prison while 443 inmates remain at large. The raid occurred a month after ISWAP gunmen detonated explosives and opened fire on a Catholic church in Ondo State, southwestern Nigeria on June 5. The assailants shot and killed at least 40 to 50 people and injured 87 others. The attack was the first time ISWAP—which regularly carries out attacks in the northeast or northwest of the country—had been blamed for an attack in the southwest.
North Caucasus: Wilayat Qawqaz
In June 2015, ISIS announced the creation of a governorate in Russia’s North Caucasus, after months of garnering support in the region. The governorate is reportedly comprised of former al-Qaeda militants in the region who pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the months leading up to the announcement. More than a dozen suspected ISIS fighters have been arrested in Russia since the announcement.
Pakistan: Wilayat Pakistan
On May 14, 2019, ISIS’s Amaq News Agency announced the creation of a Pakistan province, which claimed credit for killing a Pakistani police officer earlier in the week. Pakistan’s government denied that ISIS had created a base in the country. Pakistan formerly fell under the jurisdiction of ISIS’s Khorasan Province, which former members of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan formed in 2015 after pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Khorasan Province previously also included Afghanistan, India, parts of Iran, and other parts of central Asia. ISIS announced a separate province in India the previous week.
Saudi Arabia: Wilayat al-Haramayn
ISIS declared a governorate in Saudi Arabia in November 2014. Since then, ISIS has been involved in a number of attacks in Saudi Arabia, including the November 2014 targeting of a Shiite shrine in al-Dalwa village, the November 2015 shooting of a Danish resident in Riyadh, and a thwarted multiple car bombing attack east of Riyadh in April 2015. In May 2015, ISIS claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia, killing more than 20 people and wounding more than 120 others. In August 2015, the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a mosque in southern Saudi Arabia, killing 15 people.
The U.S. Department of State designated ISIS’s Saudi branch as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2016.
Turkey: Wilayat Turkey
On July 10, 2019, ISIS released a video of a group of fighters in Turkey pledging allegiance to Baghdadi and declaring a new province in Turkey. The speaker, identified as Abu Qatada at-Turki, threatens both Turkey and the United States. The militants appear in front of the ISIS flag with RPGs, machine guns, grenades, and assault rifles. ISIS has long had a presence in Turkey, which had previously served as a transit point for foreign fighters traveling to Syria. In the September 2015 edition of its propaganda magazine Dabiq, ISIS labeled the Turkish government apostates and called the country a “priority for … jihad.”
In August 2022, the BBC reported details of an ISIS smuggling network in Turkey facilitated by a Canadian intelligence agent during the height of ISIS’s physical caliphate. Prior to his arrest by Turkish authorities in 2015, Mohammed Al Rasheed had smuggled multiple Britons into Syria for at least eight months while sharing their passport information with Canadian authorities through the Canadian embassy in Jordan. Rasheed often photographed identification papers or filmed travelers on his phone. He reportedly mapped the locations of the homes of Western foreign fighters in Syria. He also collected IP addresses and the locations of Internet cafes in ISIS-held territory. Rasheed told Turkish authorities he was collecting information on foreign fighters and passing it to the Canadians in exchange for asylum.
Prior to declaring a wilayah in Turkey, the Turkish government has suspected ISIS of responsibility for numerous attacks, including a triple suicide bombing at Ataturk Airport on June 28, 2016, that killed 45, and an August 21, 2016, suicide bombing that killed 51 people at a wedding. ISIS claimed responsibility for a January 1, 2017, shooting at a nightclub in Turkey that killed 39.
Yemen: Wilayat Sana’a
A self-proclaimed ISIS affiliate, calling itself “Wilayat Sana’a” claimed responsibility for a deadly mosque bombing in Yemen in March 2015, in which at least 142 people were killed. In late April 2015, the group formally announced itself as an ISIS governorate. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi confirmed the group’s status as a governorate in November 2015. The U.S. Department of State designated ISIS’s Yemeni branch as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in May 2016.
ISIS has not gained as much traction among Yemenis as al-Qaeda, according to Yemeni officials. Many of the leaders of ISIS in Yemen are Saudi nationals. Compounded with ISIS’s centralized authority based in Syria, many in Yemen’s tribal areas reportedly view the terror group as foreign and disconnected from Yemeni interests. Furthermore, AQAP has forged alliances and worked with local tribal authorities in power-sharing agreements while ISIS leadership has failed to make inroads in Yemeni tribal structure.
General Directorate of Provinces (GDP)
ISIS’s General Directorate of Provinces (GDP) are structures that were put in place to maintain the group’s global network, tactical capacity, and reputation following the defeat of the territorial “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. There are nine regional networks that were developed between 2017 and 2019. The operational capacity of each regional network varies widely. However, given constantly evolving challenges, each network plans accordingly and adapts to the security changes in their immediate environment.
In terms of the GDP, within ISIS’s core area, the terror group maintains two distinct organizational structures for Iraq and Syria. The Iraq office is presumably called the Bilad al-Rafidayn office, and the Syrian outpost is known as the al-Sham office. Turkey’s division within the GDP, the al-Faruq office, managed Turkey, the Caucasus, the Russian Federation, and parts of Eastern Europe. However, Turkish police have reportedly targeted and arrested key al-Faruq officials, leading ISIS’s network in Turkey to now be managed by the al-Sham office.
ISIS boasts three well-established offices within the GDP. Afghanistan’s Al-Siddiq office covers South Asia and Central Asia. Somalia’s al-Karrar office covers Somalia, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ISIS’s regional division in the Lake Chad basin is called al-Furqan and oversees ISIS activity in Nigeria and the western Sahel.
There are three offices that are less active or are struggling to enforce their influence in their objective areas. The Libya-based al-Anfal office reportedly covered northern Africa and the Sahel; the Yemen-based Umm al-Qura office directs and coordinates activity in the Arabian Peninsula; and the Sinai Peninsula based Zu al-Nurayn office is responsible for Egypt and the Sudan.
The U.S. Department of State has identified Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i and Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Mainuki as two high-ranking officials within the GDP network. Rufay’i, who previously served as the wali of ISIS’s Iraq province, is the emir of Iraq’s Bilad al-Rafidayn Office, and Al-Mainuki as a senior leader of ISIS’s al-Furqan Office.
Financing:
At the height of its power in Iraq and Syria, ISIS was been called the richest terrorist organization in the world. Months after the caliphate’s formation in June 2014, analysts estimated the group’s assets at $1.3–2 billion, with a daily income of $3 million. Since then, coalition airstrikes, military setbacks, and loss of territory have dampened the group’s profits. ISIS’s annual revenue reportedly fell from $2.9 billion in 2014 to $2.4 billion in 2015, according to the European think tank Center for the Analysis of Terrorism. In 2016, ISIS was estimated to have taken in $870 million, according to findings by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation. By June 2017, ISIS had reportedly lost 80 percent of its revenue sources. The group reportedly had a revenue stream of just $16 million during the second financial quarter of 2017, compared with $81 million during the same period in 2015, according to global data-monitoring company IHS Markit. The lost revenue forced ISIS to cut its fighters’ wages by 50 percent in February 2016. As ISIS’s physical caliphate collapsed in 2018, the terror group sought different avenues of financing.
Militant financing expert Patrick Johnson of the RAND Corporation credited ISIS’s survival and evolution to its strong, diversified fundraising apparatus. As the group expanded through 2013 and 2014, ISIS derived the largest part of its revenue from the spoils of war, particularly as the group commandeered oil fields and weapons caches. While ISIS controlled territory in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017, the group reportedly derived its income primarily from taxation, oil, looting, and extortion.
For years, ISIS controlled oil fields in its strongholds of eastern Syria and northern Iraq, smuggling crude oil by truck in exchange for cash and refined petroleum. Customers reportedly included ISIS sympathizers, as well as those who formally opposed ISIS, including the Turkish and Syrian governments. For financial purposes, the group also targeted for seizure key infrastructure, including factories and power plants. ISIS’s exploitation of the energy assets under its control was hamstrung by maintenance needs, which it reportedly addressed by intimidating on-site engineers.
ISIS also reportedly fills its coffers through extortion, including bank looting, taxation, and kidnapping for ransom. The group has also collected profit from the sale of women and children as sex slaves. In 2014, ISIS allegedly collected at least $25 million in ransom payments, a figure that may in fact be much higher. By December 2015, ISIS reportedly collected $45 million annually through kidnapping ransoms, and more than $360 million annually from tax collection. However in mid-2017 ISIS lost its last major population centers in Iraq and Syria, thus losing all tax revenue.
ISIS has also illegally exported valuable antiquities from Iraq and Syria to Turkey. In May 2015, the United Nations estimated that ISIS earned as much as $100 million annually from the illegal sale of antiquities looted from captured territories. Professor Michael Danti of Boston University noted that Islamic law specifies “exactly what to do with antiquities when you find them. You sell them and 20% of the profits goes as a tax.” The United Nations has condemned ISIS’s antiquities looting as “a form of violent extremism that seeks to destroy the present, past and future of human civilization.”
The group has also attracted donations from terrorist sympathizers worldwide. Wealthy individuals in the Gulf reportedly provided funding that helped to launch ISIS and other jihadist groups amid the turmoil of the Syrian civil war. For example, U.S.-designated Qatari national ‘Abd al-Rahman bin ‘Umayr al-Nu’aymi provided significant financial support to al-Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS’s forerunner, according to the U.S. Treasury. Beyond that, ISIS uses its extensive presence on social media platforms to solicit both small- and large-scale donations.
The loss of its physical caliphate has freed ISIS from its financial responsibilities in maintaining a state. While ISIS can no longer steadily rely on the sale of oil or taxes for income, the group has nonetheless continued to exploit revenue streams established during the caliphate, including ransoms and extortion. Raids on ISIS-linked businesses in Iraq have also shown that ISIS launders its cash reserves through investments in legitimate businesses across the Middle East such as hotels, car dealerships, and real estate. ISIS leaders reportedly smuggled approximately $400 million in Western currencies and gold out of Syria and Iraq as they fled their former strongholds. Iraqi officials allege ISIS transferred the majority of its wealth Turkey, where it has been invested in gold when not held by individuals. In Iraq and Syria, ISIS reportedly also continues to take advantage of corrupt government officials and extortion to profit from the billions of dollars flow into the countries for reconstruction efforts.
ISIS has also taken advantage of the anonymity provided by digital cryptocurrencies to raise and transfer funds globally. According to a 2018 Europol report, ISIS has used cryptocurrencies to fund online terrorist activities but had not yet used it to directly fund a terrorist attack. In November 2018, for example, Zoobia Shahnaz of Long Island, New York, pleaded guilty to converting money from a credit card scam to bitcoin to send to ISIS. On April 20, 2019, the day before ISIS’s Easter bombing in Sri Lanka, Israeli blockchain intelligence company Whitestream recorded an increase in ISIS-held bitcoin holdings on the Canadian digital coin platform CoinPayments from approximately $500,000 to $4.5 million. That balance returned to $500,000 the day after the attack. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has created guidelines for nations to address the use of digital currencies by terrorist and criminal organizations, which FATF called “serious and urgent.”
After a pair of earthquakes across Syria and Turkey on February 6, 2023, regional observers questioned what became of ISIS’s fortune. In the aftermath of the earthquakes, approximately 20 ISIS fighters escaped a military prison, known as the “Black Prison,” in Rajo, Syria. The escapees reportedly paid between $1,000 and $10,000 for help in their escape from the prison, which was damaged during the earthquake. The incident renews questions among regional observers over how the prisoners got hold of such large sums, as well as who accepted the money.
Recruitment:
Online/Digital Recruitment
Since its inception, ISIS has maintained a powerful online media campaign aimed at recruiting members internationally. According to national security pundit John Little, ISIS “launched [its] offensive with a… media campaign well planned in advance. [The campaign] wasn’t an afterthought.” Recruitment methods include slickly produced videos, an online magazine, and the use of social media outlets.
ISIS’s Al-Hayat Media Center is responsible for much of the group’s marketing and recruitment. The group has also released propaganda materials through media centers Al-Furqan and Al-I’tasim Media, news agencies Amaq Agency and Bayan Radio, as well as through more than a dozen regional media outlets that produce content on behalf of the group’s various wilayas. The center’s explicit goal is to “convey the message of the Islamic State in different languages with the aim of unifying Muslims under one flag.” In addition to pursuing fighters, recruiters seek to attract doctors, accountants, engineers, and wives, in the interest of building a “new society.”
Social Media
ISIS recruiters have utilized social media outlets to “field questions about joining” the group, a process which resembles an “online version of [a] religious seminar.” CEP has documented as ISIS recruiters exploit online platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Ask.fm, and Askbook, to advertise and recruit for ISIS. Recruiters also use instant-messaging services such as Telegram, WhatsApp, Wickr, KiK, and YikYak to provide advice about logistical issues–such as transportation and finances–regarding the trek to Syria as well as instructions on how to carry out domestic attacks on behalf of the terrorist group.
Canadian national Mubin Shaikh, a Taliban recruiter turned security operative, claims that recruiters interview potential jihadists to ensure commitment to the cause, as well as to weed out spies. According to Shaikh, recruiters use whatever means possible. “If they can Skype you, they’ll Skype you. They want to see what you look like. You can’t be that secretive with them.” Common interview tactics include testing the recruit’s knowledge of Islamic scholars. Shaikh also describes a large net of jihadists, claiming that recruiters often contact established ISIS sympathizers within a potential recruit’s city in order to vet recruits, “whether [the recruit is] American, Canadian or British.” To avoid detection, recruiters use encryption software and proxy servers during the interview process.
High-Production Videos
ISIS’s Al-Hayat Media Center produces much of the recruitment material disseminated by the terror group, though the group also releases high-production video content through Al-Faruq Media, Al-I’tisam Media, and through regional video producers dispersed throughout the group’s various wilayas. In May 2014, the media center launched a video series called the Mujatweets, shot in HD quality, to show “snippets of day-to-day life in the Islamic State.” The Mujatweets serve as explicit propaganda, aimed at depicting life in the Islamic State as bountiful and heroic.
In the first episode of Mujatweets, an ISIS fighter appeals to Western jihadists by singing in German. In the sixth episode, a member of ISIS speaks in French, claiming that it is an obligation for Muslims to immigrate to the Islamic State. In the third and seventh episodes, shots of a sandwich shop and a bustling marketplace aim to attract newcomers with scenes of abundance. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), “the purpose [of the Mujatweets] is to show that life under ISIS rule is peaceful and normal, and to shatter the image of the jihad fighters as fierce religious fanatics by presenting them as ordinary, friendly people eager to help the local population.”
In addition to the Mujatweets series, the al-Hayat media center produces longer recruitment videos, the infamous beheading videos, and online propaganda magazines. Al-Hayat media center is notable for high video production quality and consistent circulation. Long War Journal editor Bill Roggio commented on the fast turnout of the al-Hayat’s videos. “Al-Qaeda will issue a propaganda statement, what, once every month? With the Islamic State, I saw the aftermath of the battle of Tabqa that gave them full control of a province in Syria — I saw that video two days after the battle.”
Online Magazines and Newsletters: Dabiq, Rumiyah, and al-Naba
Both Dabiq and Rumiyah serve as another recruitment tool for the terror group. The group also releases text missives through its al-Naba newsletter, and through text releases from the group’s propaganda news agency, Amaq.
ISIS’s released its first online, multi-language magazine on July 5, 2014, just one month after capturing the Iraqi city of Mosul. Dabiq was named after a small town in northern Syria where Islamic scriptures prophesized the final apocalyptic battle between Christians and Muslims would be held. The magazine provided English-language readers with battlefield updates, administrative reporting, and religious commentary. ISIS also used Dabiq’s 15 issues to promote religious propaganda to justify its crimes, such as enslaving and selling Yazidi women as sex slaves. The magazine was available via pro-ISIS Telegram accounts, widely shared on Twitter and Facebook, and briefly available for purchase on Amazon.
In September 2016, as it appeared that the town of Dabiq would soon fall to Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army forces, ISIS replaced its magazine with a new one, Rumiyah. The name change sought to shift emphasis away from a mythical final battle between Muslims and Christians that was to take place in Dabiq. The name Rumiyah refers to two hadiths that calls for Islam to conquer Constantinople and then Rome on its path to conquering the West, which ISIS referenced in a eulogy of its recently deceased spokesman Abu Muhammed al-Adnani in Rumiyah’s first issue. ISIS has used the magazine to call for lone-wolf attacks in Western countries, including the United States and Australia. ISIS releases Rumiyah via pro-ISIS Telegram accounts and social media accounts.
ISIS also releases a weekly newsletter called al-Naba. Distributed as a PDF via Telegram and other social media sites, Al-Naba often covers battlefield updates and interviews with high-ranking ISIS members.
To reach a wide range of audiences, ISIS magazines are translated into a variety of languages, including Arabic, English, French, German, and Russian. ISIS’s online magazines—released en masse through Telegram, Twitter, and other online outlets—are filled with propaganda detailing the group’s strategy. Dabiq and Rumiyah initially encouraged all Muslims to migrate to the Islamic State or carry out domestic attacks, but the messaging has since shifted to encourage more domestic and lone-wolf-style attacks.
Recruiters’ Psychological Tactics
Some psychologists believe that potential jihadists joined ISIS in their quest for “personal significance” or due to the existential desire to matter and be respected, according to psychology professor Arie W. Kruglanski. According to this theory, ISIS recruitment measures directly appeal to disaffected and disillusioned individuals seeking to “make their mark.” MEMRI deputy director Eliot Zweig concurred, stating, “You see messages of camaraderie” rather than difficulty, gore and suffering. “It is ‘come and join us, join me and we’ll fight the good fight together.’” Others claim that recruits are simply “thrill seekers,” or young people craving a “fresh identity.” According to terrorism expert Max Abrahms, recruitment over social media lures “ignorant people with respect to religion… [who] would probably fail the most basic test on Islam.”
The depiction of the Islamic State as a free and open society is another recruiting approach. According to John Horgan, a psychologist who studies terrorists, the exploitation of this image “makes radicalization and recruitment much easier.” Recruits believe that ISIS “is an equal opportunity organization.” Indeed, its recruitment tactics appeal to “everything from the sadistic psychopath to the humanitarian to the idealistic driven,” says Horgan. Andrew Poulin, a Canadian who converted to Islam and immigrated to the Islamic State, was featured in one of the group’s propaganda videos, saying: “Before I come here to Syria, I had money, I had a family, I had good friends. It wasn’t like I was some anarchist or somebody who just wants to destroy the world and kill everybody. I was a regular person. We need the engineers, we need doctors, we need professionals. Every person can contribute something to the Islamic State.”
Recruiters also radicalize by exploiting grievances, declaring that the Muslim world has endured humiliation and victimization at the hands of the West. The recruiters paint the choice of every Muslim individual in black and white: either join ISIS and live in dignity, or continue living as a victimized Muslim in a secular land. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in his speech introducing the creation of the “caliphate,” declared, “by Allah’s grace—you have a state and Khilafah [caliphate], which will return your dignity, might, rights, and leadership.” This Manichean approach feeds into the message of obligation. According to terrorism expert Paul Cruickshank, ISIS recruiters flood social media with the message of “you have to join. It’s your religious duty.” However, as ISIS lost its territory in Syria and Iraq, its propaganda shifted to encourage more domestic and lone-wolf-style attacks.
On-the-ground Recruitment
ISIS’s on-the-ground recruitment strategies have been growing due to a mounting crackdown on the group’s online recruitment methods. Operating mostly in European, American, and Canadian cities, on-the-ground recruiters are believed to include preachers, jihadist sympathizers, and fighters returning from Syria. According to a leaked police report, recruiters operate out of mosques, cafes, restaurants, gyms and private homes and apartments. Similar to online recruitment, on-the-ground recruiters act as radicalizing agents who provide logistical support to those who wish to immigrate to the Islamic State.
Some reports suggest that young Muslims are radicalized at “pop-up” meetings, which are never held in the same place twice. Others include extremists leafleting in European Muslim communities.
On-the-ground recruitment is believed to take place in Canada also. Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, claims that potential recruits are paired up with “jihadi mentors.” According to Sohwarwardy, the mentor-recruit relationship can form at “religious seminars, community activities or classes that might look normal to the average Westerner.” Other possible venues for radicalization include “student groups” at colleges and high schools.
On-the-ground radicalization can be instigated by one’s emotional or physical proximity to an extremist. For example, U.S. citizen Douglas McCain—who died in Syria as an ISIS fighter—had lived in the same building as a classmate who joined Somali militant group al-Shabab. Similarly, a group of 10 Minnesotan acquaintances were found to have co-conspired to join ISIS abroad in a radicalization process that appeared in to have taken place largely in person.
Training:
The training to become an ISIS soldier is believed to include both ideological and physical components. During religious training, referred to as sharii, ISIS members receive what ISIS-affiliated Syrian cleric Abu Moussa referred to as “the basics about religion… [during which ISIS trainers] cleanse you from religious innovations and Ba’athist ideas.” New recruits are also believed to undergo physical training. A video released by ISIS’s al-Hayat Media Center in October 2014 depicted recruits participating in training exercises in Iraq’s Nineveh province. The jihadists-in-training were filmed while completing weapons training, hand-to-hand combat exercises, and live-fire training.
At its peak in 2014 and 2015, foreign fighters arriving in ISIS-controlled territory reportedly complete anywhere between a few days of basic weapons training to a year-long intensive training course. The training program for an elite fighting unit, for example, is reported to require 10 levels of training. The first level is believed to include hours of strenuous physical activity such as running, jumping, pushups, and crawling, while higher levels may comprise aquatic training and celestial navigation.
In addition to training voluntary recruits, ISIS also reportedly forced captured Syrian pilots to train ISIS fighters using stolen aircraft. In October 2014, eyewitness reports claimed that ISIS had three military aircraft in its possession, and that its fighters had been flying the airplanes over captured military bases in northern Aleppo, Syria.
ISIS also has forced children to train as fighters, a war crime under international human rights law. This training reportedly took place in camps with names such as “Zarqawi Cubs Camps,” in tribute to al-Qaeda in Iraq founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. According to global security firm Flashpoint Intelligence, there have been multiple youth training camps in and around Mosul, as well as in Damascus, Aleppo, and al-Bukamal in eastern Syria.
ISIS fighters have also trained children how to use AK-47s and have reportedly used dolls to demonstrate beheadings. “Sometimes they force them to carry [real human] heads in order to cast the fear away from their hearts,” one Iraqi security official told NBC News. A September 2014 United Nations report found that ISIS deployed children in “active combat during military operations, including suicide bombing missions.” In February 2016, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point warned that ISIS was mobilizing children at an “increasing and unprecedented rate.”
Also known as:
Al-Qa’ida Group of Jihad in Iraq
Al-Qa’ida Group of Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)
Al-Qa’ida in Iraq – Zarqawi
Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQM)
Al-Qa’ida in the Land of the Two Rivers
Al-Qa’ida of Jihad Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers
Al-Qa’ida of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers
Al-Qaeda Separatists in Iraq and Syria (QSIS)
Al-Tawhid
Al-Tawhid and al-Jihad
Al-Zarqawi Network
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis
Battar Brigade
Brigades of Tawhid
Daesh
Dawla al-Islamiya
Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa as-Sham
Islamic Caliphate
Islamic Caliphate State
Islamic State (IS)
Islamic State in Iraq (ISI)
Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)
Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)
Islamic State in the Greater Sahara
Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)
Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS)
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Mozambique
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – Democratic Republic of the Congo
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
Islamic State Pakistan Province
Islamic Youth Shura Council
Jam’at al-Tawhid Wa’al-Jihad (JTJ)
Kateab al-Tawhid
Monotheism and Jihad Group
Mujahidin Shura Council
Organization Base of Jihad/Mesopotamia
Organization of al-Jihad’s Base in Iraq
Organization of al-Jihad’s Base in the Land of the Two Rivers
Organization Base of Jihad/Country of the Two Rivers
Organization of al-Jihad’s Base of Operations in Iraq
Organization of al-Jihad’s Base of Operations in the Land of the Two Rivers
Organization of Jihad’s Base in the Country of the Two Rivers
Qaida of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers
Southern Province
Tanzeem Qa'idat al Jihad Bilad al Raafidaini
Tanzim Qa'idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn
Unity and Holy Struggle
Unity and Holy War
Unity and Jihad Group
Wilayah al-Hind (India)
Wilayat Badiya
Wilayat Barakah (Hasaka)
Wilayat Kheir (Deir al Zour)
Wilayat Raqqa
Wilayat al-Tarabulus
Wilayat Anbar
Wilayat Barqa
Wilayat Coast (Al Sahel)
Wilayat Damascus (Dimashq)
Wilayat Diyala
Wilayat Fezza
Wilayat Gharb Ifriqiyya
Wilayat Halab (Aleppo)
Wilayat Hama
Wilayat Idlib
Wilayat Khorasan
Wilayat Kirkuk
Wilayat Ninawa
Wilayat Salahuddin
Wilayat Pakistan
Wilayat Turkey
Wilayat Central AfricaKey Leaders
Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi
Caliph
Abu al-Hussain al-Hussaini al-Qurashi
Caliph (deceased)
Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi
Caliph (deceased)
Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla a.k.a. Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi
Caliph (deceased)
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Caliph – deceased
Former leader of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI)
Abu Luqman
ISIS-appointed director of security and intelligence, Syria and Iraq
Abu Muhammad al-Shimali
Border Chief, Immigration and Logistics Committee, Leader of operations outside of Iraq and Syria
Faysal Ahmad Bin Ali al-Zahrani
Lead oil and gas division official in al-Barakah Governorate, Syria
Abu Fatima al-Jaheishi
Senior military leader and Emir of Iraq
Abu Ahmad al-Alwani
Chief of General Staff
Abdul Qadr al-Najdi
Emir in Libya – deceased
Abu Sufyan Bin Qumu
Senior leader in Libya
Former leader
Former foreign fighter
Abu Muhammad al-Adnani
Former spokesman, emir of ISIS in Syria, and head of ISIS’s Emni unit – deceased
Omar al-Shishani
Former senior military commander, former member of ISIS’s Shura Council – deceased
Abu Ayman al-Iraqi
Former military commander; former emir of Latakia province, Syria; former governor of ISIS’s Anbar Province in Iraq – deceased
Shaker Wahib al-Fahdawi a.k.a. Abu Wahib
Former military emir of Anbar – deceased
Former member
Wael Adel Salman al-Fayad
Former minister of information – deceased
Hafiz Saeed Khan
Former emir in AfPak – deceased
Abu Duaa al-Ansari
Former emir in Egypt – deceased
Abu Bilal al-Harbi
Emir in Yemen
Abu Muslim al-Turkmani
Former deputy of ISIS-controlled Iraq – deceased
Turki al-Binali
Former senior official, chief religious advisor, author, recruiter – deceased
Rustam Aselderov
Former leader in the Caucuses – deceased
Ayad al-Jumaili
Former senior leader – deceased
Abu Suleiman al-Naser
Former minister of war – deceased
Gulmurod Khalimov
Minister of war – deceased
Abu Hassan al-Muhajir
Spokesman – deceased
Abu Hamza al-Qurashi
Spokesman – deceased
Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i
Emir of Bilad al-Rafidayn Office
Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Mainuki
Senior leader
History
Violent Activities
May 20, 2024: An explosive-laden handcart detonates on a road to Kabul in Kandahar, the Taliban’s political headquarters in southern Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least one and injures three others. Multiple sources claim that the bombing had targeted Taliban security forces, and the death toll was significantly higher than what was officially reported. Authorities suspect ISIS-K carried out the attack as they routinely target members of the Taliban and the country’s minority Shiite community.
May 20, 2024: Indian anti-terror police arrest four Sri Lankan nationals in Ahmedabad, western India, after a tip-off. Further investigation reveals that the ISIS cell maintained contact with a key ISIS leader, a Pakistan-based man named . Police later uncover three loaded pistols and an ISIS flag belonging to the men at a nearby location.
May 19, 2024: Austrian police search an ISIS-affiliated schoolgirl’s home in Graz, Austria. The suspect, a national of Montenegro, had reportedly planned to carry out an attack on non-believers in Jakominiplatz, one of the largest squares in Graz. Police tracked the girl down after they were alerted of her suspicious social media activity. Upon investigation of her belongings, police discover ISIS propaganda, videos of combat and executions, weapons, and special clothing.
May 17, 2024: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) launches a raid on a Russian soldier’s home in Karachay-Cherkess Republic, one of Russia’s ethnic republics in the North Caucuses. FSB soldiers ultimately kill the soldier accused of links to ISIS and the preparation of an attack on law enforcement officers. FSB forces reportedly find an improvised explosive device and assault rifles at the scene of arrest.
May 17, 2024: ISIS militants open fire on civilians in Bamyan province, a major tourist area in central Afghanistan. The mass shooting kills six and wounds seven others. Of those killed, three are Spanish citizens. Included among the wounded are nationals from Norway, Australia, and Latvia. Seven suspects are arrested at the scene. Following the attack, ISIS releases a statement via its Amaq news agency claiming the shooting was “in response to the IS leaders’ directions to target citizens of the European Union wherever they are found.”
May 14, 2024: Morocco’s special forces of the Rapid Intervention Brigade launch an operation targeting a four-member ISIS cell active in Tiznit and Sidi Slimane. The operation leads to the arrest of four members who are charged with financing and plotting terrorist projects with the aim of undermining public order. Investigators later seized paramilitary equipment, extremist manuscripts, and electronic media from the sites of arrest.
May 13, 2024: ISIS militants ambush a military outpost between Diyala and Salahuddin provinces, eastern Iraq. The assailants kill five soldiers, including an Iraqi commanding officer, and wound five others.
May 8-14, 2024: On May 8, Greater Manchester Police arrest three men on suspicion of planning to carry out an ISIS-style gun attack on Jewish targets in northwest England. One of the suspects, Walid Saadaoui, reportedly arranged for a safehouse to store weapons and ammunition. He also allegedly contacted a member of ISIS. The other suspect, Amar Hussein, allegedly conducted reconnaissance of port security in Dover where the weapons would be imported. The last suspect, Bilel Saadaoui, failed to provide information of a terrorist act with authorities. The men reportedly began planning an attack in December 2023 and were allegedly set to launch the attack by May 2024. The suspects appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on May 14 on charges of preparing a terrorist attack.
April 30, 2024: A gunman storms a Shiite Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan, killing six and injuring one. The gunman flees the scene. ISIS-K claims responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel.
April 25, 2024: Greater London police arrest Hamza Alam on three counts of disseminating terrorist publications as well as one charge of encouraging terrorism and terrorist acts. Alam claims he was an “online librarian,” but he has previously shared videos of ISIS executions and other content that glorified ISIS.
April 24, 2024: German prosecutors charge seven Islamic terror suspects with forming a terror group and plotting terror attacks in the country. The suspects were reportedly in the process of procuring money and weapons and scoped possible targets and locations for an attack in Germany and Western Europe. The suspects—from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan—arrived in Germany in 2022 and were arrested in July 2023 in western Germany upon suspicion of supporting ISIS and communicating with ISIS-K.
April 20, 2024: A bomb attached to a car detonates in a Shiite neighborhood of Kabul, killing one and wounding three others. ISIS-K claims responsibility for the attack.
April 18, 2024: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) arrest an ISIS operative in the West Bank. The suspect was reportedly planning to carry out a future attack. Further information on the assailant is not reported.
April 13, 2024: ISIS-affiliated militants ambush villages surrounding Mulekera in eastern Congo. The assailants kill 11 people while also torching vehicles and stealing possessions.
April 9, 2024: The FBI arrests Alexander Mercurio, an 18-year-old from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to investigators, Mercurio had intentions of attacking at least one church and had revealed to an undercover FBI source that he wanted to kill as many people as possible. He reportedly stated he wanted to “donate every last cent…to ISIS” and pledge allegiance to the terror group before carrying out the attack.
April 6, 2024: Iranian police arrest three ISIS members, including a senior operative, in Karaj, west of Tehran. The suspects reportedly planned to carry out a suicide attack during Ramadan celebrations.
April 4, 2024: Israel’s Shin Bet security agency foils a terror plot by the members of an ISIS-affiliated cell in Jerusalem. The suspects reportedly had plans to open fire and use explosives on a police station and a stadium in east Jerusalem. One of the suspects reportedly specialized in organizing attacks within Israel. Another suspect had also received training abroad and encouraged his accomplices to do the same. All reportedly pledged allegiance to ISIS prior to their arrest.
March 22, 2024: At approximately 7:50 p.m., 10 minutes before the start of a concert by the band Picnic, at least four gunmen dressed in khakis open fire at the 6,200-seat Crocus City Hall in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk. The gunmen spread throughout the building, shooting people on sight. The gunmen then set the concert hall on fire. By 8:30, the building is reportedly engulfed in flames. The attack kills at least 137 and wounds more than 180 others. It is reportedly the deadliest terror attack in Russia in more than two decades. Russian President Vladimir Putin initially blames Ukraine, but ISIS-K claims responsibility several hours after the attack through ISIS’s social media channels. ISIS issues a second statement of responsibility on March 23, calling the attack part of “the natural framework” of ISIS’s war against countries the terror group accuses of fighting Islam. Some analysts suggest the ISIS attack could be revenge for Russian airstrikes in Syria against ISIS hideouts. While some Russian media outlets doubt the veracity of the ISIS claim and suggest it is part of an attempt to create a fake trail, U.S officials confirm ISIS’s claim of responsibility. On March 23, Russian authorities arrest four suspects in the Bryansk region, allegedly heading toward Ukraine. The suspects appear in a Moscow court on March 24. Two of the suspects admit guilt. All four reportedly show signs of severe beatings, raising questions in global media about the authenticity of the confessions. Authorities charge the suspects, identified as Tajik nationals, with carrying out a terrorist act. They face life in prison. On March 25, the French government corroborates the authenticity of ISIS’s claim of responsibility.
March 19, 2024: German police arrest two Afghan nationals in Gera, Germany, for allegedly planned an attack on Sweden’s parliament. The two reportedly received instructions on how to conduct the attack from an unidentified ISIS branch in the summer of 2023. The planned attack was allegedly in response to Quran burnings that occurred in early 2023 across Sweden and other Scandinavian countries.
March 16, 2024: Spanish police arrest an alleged ISIS supporter in Barcelona. The suspect, an 18-year-old Spanish national of Moroccan heritage, is accused of disseminating “jihadist content on terrorist activities” as well as “material suitable for the manufacture of explosives” through instant messaging applications. The suspect managed to use “tools that let him operate anonymously” online. He is further accused of instructing four members of a jihadist cell in Tyresö, Sweden who were allegedly preparing an attack. SÄPO reportedly alerted the Information Service of the Civil Guard of the cell a year prior. The Spanish Civil Guard believes the suspect is also connected to terrorist financing activities as he used cryptocurrencies that will be further investigated. His terror connections also include a jihadist in Canada who was arrested in December 2023 as well as links to ISIS members in Asia and Europe.
March 8, 2024: The Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) announces the arrest of four individuals associated with ISIS in Stockholm. The suspects reportedly were in the process of preparing terrorist crimes.
March 7, 2024: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims it “neutralized” an ISIS-K cell planning an attack on a Moscow synagogue. According to the FSB, members of the cell opened fire during the attempted arrest and were then “neutralized by return fire.”
March 4, 2024: Israel’s Shin Bet security agency dismantles a terror cell of four West Bank Palestinians inspired by ISIS. The cell reportedly used online guides and instructions from other ISIS operatives to manufacture 100 explosive devices to be used against IDF forces in the West Bank. The four suspects are arrested and charged with security offenses.
March 2, 2024: A Swiss teenager stabs and critically wounds an Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich, Switzerland. Police apprehend the suspect at the scene. Swiss police later reveal that the suspect had appeared in a video where he pledged solidarity with ISIS and called himself a “soldier” in its so-called caliphate.
February 16, 2024: A Manhattan federal court charges Minnesota native Harafa Hussein Abdi with providing and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group and receiving and conspiring to receive military-type training from ISIS. Abdi traveled to Somalia in 2015 to join ISIS with the intent of acquiring skills to carry out an attack against civilians in New York City. Abdi was arrested in 2017 in an undisclosed area in East Africa after escaping the group following disagreements with the leadership. He remained in detention abroad before being transported to the United States on February 15, 2024. If found guilty, Abdi faces 10 years imprisonment.
February 14, 2024: ISIS militants ambush Syrian soldiers in Syria’s Badia Desert, killing nine.
February 12, 2024: Spain’s Audencia Nacional criminal court sentences both Karim Abdesalem Mohamed and Mohamed El Gharbi to seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for “recruitment and terrorist indoctrination.” According to the court, the two suspects—both of whom were already serving eight- to 12-year sentences for belonging to terror cells—reportedly encouraged other inmates to follow the jihadist ideology of ISIS and continue terrorist activities once released.
February 9, 2024: ISIS-Mozambique gunmen ambush a passenger bus in Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique. The militants kill the driver and leave a note threatening Christians to convert to Islam or be killed.
February 9, 2024: A pro-ISIS Telegram channel posts a video after ISIS gunmen kill the driver of a passenger bus in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province. The post also shows a photo of a note left by ISIS-Mozambique at the scene stating, “We declare war on all Christians in the world…To Muslims we announce peace to all the world. Let’s work together to defend the religion of Allah together. If [Christians] refuse [to convert to Islam] then you will pay jizyah and if you refuse to pay jizyah you will be killed.”
January 30, 2024: ISIS-K militants carry out two bombings in Balochistan, Pakistan. The explosions in Pishin and Qila Saifullah, which target election offices, kill at least 22 people and wound several others.
January 28, 2024: ISIS militants carry out an attack at the Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul, Turkey, killing one. Authorities later arrest two suspected assailants, one from Tajikistan and the other from Russia.
January 9, 2024: ISIS militants ambush government soldiers in Homs province, Syria, killing at least 14.
January 9, 2024: An explosive hidden on a minivan belonging to employees of Kabul’s main prison detonates, killing three and wounding four others. ISIS claims responsibility. One suspect is detained.
January 6, 2024: ISIS-K militants ambush a minibus in Dasht-e-Barchi, western Kabul in Afghanistan. The attack kills at least five and wounds more than a dozen others. ISIS-K targets Afghanistan’s Hazara-Shiite community in the attack, a demographic ISIS labels as “disbelievers.”
January 3, 2024: Two explosions kill at least 84 people in Kerman, Iran, near the tomb of deceased IRGC Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani. The first bomb detonates outside the Garden of Martyrs cemetery near the Saheb al-Zaman Mosque. A second bomb detonates approximately 15 minutes later about a mile from the cemetery, targeting people fleeing the scene. The attack occurs during a ceremony marking the anniversary of Soleimani’s January 3, 2020, death in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s political deputy, Mohammad Jamshidi, blames Israel and the United States. On January 4, ISIS claims responsibility on Telegram, calling the attacks a “dual martyrdom operation.” ISIS identifies the bombers as Omar al-Mowahid and Sayefulla al-Mujahid. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledges a “harsh response.” According to communications intercepts collected by the United States, ISIS’s Afghanistan branch, ISIS-K, carried out the twin bombings.
December 22, 2023: Birmingham Crown Court in the United Kingdom sentences Mohamed Al Bared, a PhD student from Coventry, to life imprisonment on charges of engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts. Al Bared used a 3D printer to construct a drone inspired by a Tomahawk missile and intended to make a “video-transmitting fixed-wing” drone that would travel to West Africa for terrorist purposes. Upon his arrest in January 2023, security officials discovered digital material supporting ISIS.
December 21, 2023: A U.S. District court in Connecticut sentences Kevin Iman McCormick to 144 months of prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release on charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS. In 2019, McCormick recorded a video where he pledged allegiance to ISIS and its late leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. He then attempted to travel to Syria on two different occasions but was ultimately arrested by Department of Homeland security officials in October of that year. In January 2023, McCormick pleaded guilty to attempting to provide support to ISIS.
December 19, 2023: Militants from the ISIS-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) ambush a village in Kamwenge, western Uganda. The ambush kills at least 10.
December 13, 2023: A U.S. federal court in Indiana sentences Moyad Dannon to 16 years and eight months imprisonment on charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS. Dannon’s brother, Mahde, was previously sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in October 2021 after he was found guilty of the same charges. Beginning in 2018, the brothers purchased firearms parts online and manufactured “ghost guns.” The brothers were arrested in May 2019 when they attempted to sell ghost guns to an undercover FBI informant planning to ship weapons to ISIS members in the Middle East. Moyad reportedly also sought to travel to Syria where he would provide ammunitions and military assistance to the terror group.
December 3, 2023: ISIS militants detonate a bomb at a gym inside Mindanao State University in Marawi City, southern Philippines. The explosion, which targeted a Catholic mass service, kills at least four and wounds more than 40 others.
December 2, 2023: A man armed with a knife and hammer carries out an attack near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. The assailant, a self-proclaimed ISIS supporter and French national, kills one German tourist and injures two others. The suspect flees the scene, but police quickly pursue and apprehend the man. According to France’s interior minister, the suspect, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, suffers from serious psychiatric disorders. The suspect claimed he was upset over the conflict in Gaza and the deaths of Muslims all over the world. The suspect had a prior terrorism conviction and had reportedly communicated with jihadists affiliated with terror attacks in France.
November 8, 2023: ISIS militants carry out multiple machine gun attacks in Raqqa, Homs, and Deir ez-Zor, Syria. The attacks kill at least 30 pro-government militia and injure an unspecified number of others.
November 7, 2023: ISIS militants detonate an explosive targeting a Hazara stronghold in Dasht-e-Barch district, near Kabul. The explosion kills seven and wounds 20 of the historically marginalized Shiite community.
October 26, 2023: ISIS militants detonate an explosive that targets a sports club in Dashti Barchi, Afghanistan. The explosion, which targeted the Hazara community in the area, killed four and wounded seven others.
October 17, 2023-November 2, 2023: On October 17, militants belonging to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an ISIS-affiliated terror group based in Democratic Republic of the Congo, open fire on a foreign couple from South Africa and their tour guide in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. The attack kills all three. On November 2, Ugandan officials claim they detained ADF chief “Njovu,” following a raid in which six ADF members were killed.
October 16, 2023: A Tunisian man, likely inspired by ISIS, opens fire on three Swedish soccer fans in Brussels, Belgium as they get out of a taxi. The attack kills two of the victims and critically injures the other. The assailant, Abdesalem Lassoued, is shot dead by police following the attack. Lassoued reportedly posted videos on social media where he spoke of targeting Swedish people on behalf of ISIS.
October 13, 2023: An ISIS suicide bomber detonates an explosive at a Shiite mosque in Pul-i-Khumri, northern Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least 17 and injures dozens of others.
July 30, 2023: A suspected suicide bomber detonates an explosive at a political rally in Bajur District, northwestern Pakistan on the border of Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least 55 and injures 135 others. The rally is held for religious political party Jamiat Ulema Islam, run by Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Although no group claims responsibility, it is expected that ISIS-K is responsible. Rehman is a pro-Taliban cleric, and ISIS-K regularly targets Taliban officials throughout Afghanistan.
June 25, 2023: ISIS gunmen shoot and kill a man in Peshawar. The man belonged to Pakistan’s minority Sikh community.
June 10, 2023: ISIS militants ambush an army position in Kirkuk, Iraq. The attack, which involved light weapons, kills two soldiers and wounds three others.
June 8, 2023: ISIS-K militants detonate an explosive at a mosque in Badakhshan, northern Afghanistan. The explosion kills 11 and wounds 30 others. The explosion occurred during a funeral for one of the Taliban’s provincial governors.
May 4, 2023: Suspected ISWAP militants ambush loggers in Bulayobe village, Nigeria. The assailants kill three of the loggers and abduct 11 others.
May 1, 2023: Suspected Boko Haram militants reportedly abduct 15 loggers in Gamboru, Borno State. While four bodies are recovered the next day, the other 11 remain missing. Loggers, farmers, and herders are regularly targeted by Boko Haram as the terror group claims the civilians are spying for the military or other counterinsurgent forces.
April 1, 2023: An assailant slashes a man’s throat and injures another on a transit bus in Surrey, British Columbia. Abdul Aziz Kawam is arrested and faces four terrorism charges for attempted murder, aggravated assault, and two counts of assault related to the attack. According to court records filed by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, Kawam reportedly carried out the assault for “the Islamic State.”
March 27, 2023: An assailant detonates a bomb near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, Afghanistan. The blast kills six and injures at least 12. Guards were able to identify and kill the assailant before he reached the ministry. ISIS-K is suspected of being responsible for the attack.
March 11, 2023: Suspected ISIS militants target truffle hunters in northern Syria. The assailants kill three and kidnap 26 others. The area is a known hideout for extremists.
March 11, 2023: ISIS-K detonates a bomb at a cultural center in Balkh Province, northern Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least one and injures eight others.
March 10, 2023: ISIS carries out an attack targeting Christians in eastern Congo. The assault included guns and knives and the destruction of property. More than 35 are killed and dozens are injured.
March 9, 2023: An ISIS-K suicide bomber sneaks his way into the office of Mohammad Dawood Muzammil, the governor of Balkh Province, Afghanistan. The assailant detonates a bomb, killing the governor and another. Two other people are wounded in the explosion. Muzammil was a vocal critic of ISIS.
February 4-5, 2023: Local ISIS fighters attack a group of Philippine Marines in the Philippines’ province of Lanao del Sur, killing one and wounding three.
February 4, 2023: Turkish intelligence breaks up a 15-member ISIS cell planning attacks on the Swedish and Dutch embassies in Istanbul, as well as synagogues and churches in Istanbul, though authorities say they found no evidence of concrete plans for an imminent attack. The alleged cell was reportedly planning the attacks in retaliation for far-right Quran burnings in Sweden and the Netherlands. Authorities link the cell to ISIS’s Khorasan Province in Afghanistan.
February 1, 2023: Authorities in Singapore announce the December 2022 arrest of 18-year-old Muhammad Irfan Danyal bin Mohamad Nor, who was planning violent attacks on behalf of ISIS. According to a police statement, the teenager posed “imminent security threat.” The Ministry of Home Affairs says Irfan allegedly planned to stab and kill “disbelievers” in dark alleys, carry out a mass-casualty attack against a military base, and bomb a grave site he considered “un-Islamic.”
January 25, 2023: The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior announces security forces had disrupted a plan by three ISIS suicide bombers to target the Nineveh Court of Appeal.
January 17, 2023: Suspected ISIS militants attack a security checkpoint in Iraq’s Kirkuk province, killing two Kurdish police officers.
January 17, 2023: An IED planted on the road to the Al-Thawra oil field in Al-Tabaqah desert wounds four soldiers. The military suspects ISIS of responsibility.
January 16, 2023: Unidentified militants attack a military post in Deir Ezzor, killing one. Officials suspect the militants may be linked to ISIS.
January 16, 2023: An explosive detonates at a church in Kasindi, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The explosion kills 12 and injures at least 50 others. The Allied Democratic Forces, an ISIS-affiliated group, is suspected of planting the bomb.
January 15, 2023: Suspected ISIS militants attack Syrian military positions in Al-Sokhna desert in Homs, killing one.
January 11, 2023: A suicide bomber detonates an explosive at the main entrance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul, reportedly targeting the Taliban. The explosion kills 20 and injures an unidentified number of others. ISIS-K claims responsibility for the attack.
January 9, 2023: Alleged ISIS militants attack the headquarters of local Iran-backed militias in Palmyra, killing one. ISIS militants also attack Syrian military positions in Al-Masrib Desert, killing an undisclosed number.
January 9, 2023: Suspected ISIS gunmen open fire at a Syrian military outpost near Al-Jalaa town in the eastern part of Deir Ezzor. One of the attackers is killed while the others escape.
January 7, 2023: ISIS militants ambush Syrian soldiers in the Juaydeen area in Al-Tabaqah desert in western Raqqa, killing one and wounding at least four.
January 5, 2023: An alleged ISIS landmine wounds two NDF members near the Al-Rasafa area in the southwestern Raqqa desert of Syria.
January 1, 2023: A bomb explodes near a checkpoint at Kabul’s military airport, killing and wounding “several” people, according to Afghanistan’s Taliban government. The Taliban-run Interior Ministry does not further clarify the casualties. ISIS-K claims responsibility on January 3 and identifies the attacker as Abdul Jabbar, who also participated in the December 12, 2022, attack on a Kabul hotel.
December 30, 2022: Two gunmen attack a police checkpoint in the Egyptian Suez Canal city of Ismailia, killing at least three and wounding four others. Police kill one of the attackers, while the other escapes. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq news agency. It is reportedly the first terrorist attack in mainland Egypt in almost three years.
December 26, 2022: ISIS militants attack security and military buildings in Raqqa, Syria, killing six SDF fighters and wounding an unspecified number of others. At least one attacker is killed and another is arrested.
December 26, 2022: A car bomb near the regional police headquarters in Faizabad in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province kills at least three, including regional security chief Abdulhaq Abu Omar. ISIS claims responsibility. In a statement released through its Amaq news agency, ISIS claims it had closely followed Abu Omar prior to the attack. Abu Omar is reportedly the highest-ranking Taliban security official killed since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.
December 12, 2022: Gunmen set off an explosion and attack the Longan Hotel in Kabul’s Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood, killing at least three and wounding 18, including at least five Chinese nationals. Security forces kill three gunmen, while assailant Abdul Jabbar escapes after he runs out of ammunition. The hotel is reportedly popular with Chinese and foreign tourists. The attackers reportedly booked a room in the hotel and smuggled in explosives ahead of the attack. ISIS claims responsibility and claims it had killed or wounded 30 security force members and Chinese citizens. It is the first ISIS attack on Chinese interests in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. After the attack, China calls on its citizens to leave Afghanistan.
December 2, 2022: ISIS militants open fire on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul. The attack wounds a security guard. Pakistan's Foreign Office claims the attack had been aimed at the head of mission, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani.
November 30, 2022: An explosive detonates at the Al Jihad Madrassa in Aybak, Samangan province. The explosion kills 10 and wounds a number of others. The madrassa was a religious school for boys set up by local Taliban officials. Although no group claims responsibility for the bombing, ISIS-K has carried out similar attacks in recent months.
November 23, 2022: Two bombs detonate within a half hour of each other at two bus stops in Jerusalem, wounding at least 20 and killing two, including a Canadian-Israeli teenager. Two U.S. citizens are among the wounded. On November 29, Israeli authorities arrest 26-year-old Aslam Faruch on suspicion of orchestrating the attacks. Faruch reportedly shares ISIS’s ideology. The arrest is made public on December 27.
October 26, 2022: ISIS militants open fire at the Shahcheragh Shrine in Shiraz, southern Iran. The attack kills at least 15 and injures 40 others. ISIS releases a statement claiming one assailant “targeted groups of Sunni refusal infidels inside the shrine with his machine gun, causing the death of tens of them.” Iranian security forces arrest two of the suspects, with a manhunt underway in search of the third.
October 24, 2022: ISWAP terrorists ambush Boko Haram militants in Gajibo camp, Borno State, Nigeria. The attack kills six Boko Haram members. Gajibo, Boko Haram’s main hideout, is a border community with Cameroon along the Dikwa-Gambouru road. Following the attack, ISWAP fighters took away Boko Haram’s weapons and other war assets in Sambisa Forest and the Lake Chad region.
September 30, 2022: A suspected ISIS-K suicide bomber detonates an explosive at a Kabul, Afghanistan, tutoring center. The assailant reportedly targeted the center as it was in a neighborhood with a significant population of Hazara. The explosion kills 53, of which most were ethnic Hazaras.
September 23, 2022: An explosive detonates near a mosque in Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul, Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least seven and injures 41. The former “green zone” of the city, the area was once the location of many foreign embassies and NATO prior to the Taliban’s return to power. No group claims responsibility but ISIS-K is suspected.
September 17, 2022: ISWAP militants ambush a Boko Haram hideout in Borno State, Nigeria. The attack kills Abou Hamza and Abou Ibrahim, two Boko Haram commanders. Although Boko Haram attempted to wage reprisal attacks against ISWAP, local security forces claim Boko Haram forces were unable to counter ISWAP.
September 11, 2022: ISIS militants ambush the village of Ruwaished, eastern Syria, where they kill six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian democratic forces. The militants carried out the attack in retaliation for an ongoing operation inside a camp currently holding thousands of family members of ISIS. Also on the 11, ISIS-linked gunmen carry out a shooting in Deir Ezzor province, killing one fighter from the SDF.
September 7, 2022: ISIS militants ambush the districts of Erati and Memba, Nampula province, Mozambique. The attackers behead six people and shoot and kill an Italian nun. According to ISIS’s statement claiming responsibility for the attack, the nun “went too far in spreading Christianity.”
September 5, 2022: Suspected ISIS militants kidnap a shepherd in Iraq’s Narin village Diyala province.
August 28, 2022: ISIS militants attack a group of shepherds in Kirkuk’s Laylan district, killing one and injuring another. At least one ISIS member is also killed.
August 2, 2022: Suspected ISIS militants attack and temporarily occupy an Iraqi army outpost in Kashakawl village in Khanaqin’s Qaratapa subdistrict. An Iraqi army convoy carrying reinforcement strikes an IED, killing five soldiers. Authorities suspect ISIS.
July 24-25, 2022: Overnight ISIS attacks in four Iraqi provinces kill at least nine. In Baghdad’s Tarmiyah, two civilians are killed while two members of the Saraya Salam militia are killed in Samarra. A member of the Iraqi federal police is shot dead in Kirkuk. An ISIS attack in Diyala kills four and wounds 11.
July 24, 2022: Six ISIS gunmen ambush a family returning from a swim in Lake Hamrin in Diyala province, killing five and wounding three. ISIS claims responsibility after the attack.
July 14-20, 2022: ISIS claims responsibility for three attacks that killed or wounded 13 people.
July 12, 2022: Militants from Wilayat Al-Hind, ISIS’s offshoot in India, ambush Indian police in Srinagar, Jammu, and Kashmir. The ambush kills one policeman and injures two constables.
July 5, 2022: ISWAP militants raid the Kuje maximum prison in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. According to media sources, the militants detonate “very high-grade explosives” killing a security officer and injuring three others. Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary at the interior ministry, claims the attackers specifically sought to release co-conspirators, but the operation leads to the escape of hundreds of other inmates. While 879 inmates flee, more than half are returned to the prison while 443 inmates remain at large. According to Nigerian officials, 64 “Boko Haram” members escape. However, that figure could include fighters from ISWAP, Jamaat Ahlus Sunna li-Dawa wal Jihad, and the al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru.
July 4, 2022: ISWAP militants ambush Suleja, a village in Niger State. The assailants kill a policeman.
June 20, 2022: Militants attack a civilian bus on a highway between Raqqa and Homs in the Jabal al-Bishri region of Raqqa province, killing at least 11 soldiers and two civilians. Three soldiers are wounded. ISIS claims responsibility.
June 18, 2022: Seven gunmen attack a Sikh temple in Kabul, killing at least two and wounding seven. The gunmen detonate a car bomb outside the temple before throwing grenades at security guards at the entrance and storming inside. There are no casualties reported from the car bomb. All seven gunmen are killed in an ensuing standoff with security forces. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack, calling it “an act of support for the Messenger of Allah.”
June 18, 2022: Suspected ISWAP gunmen open fire on scrap metal collectors in Goni Kurmi village, Borno State. The gunmen kill 10.
June 17, 2022: ISWAP militants ambush Monguno, a town in Borno State. The militants kill three soldiers and abduct three civilians.
June 5, 2022: ISIS-linked militants ambush Nanduli village in northern Mozambique. The assailants decapitate one resident and set fire to dozens of homes.
June 2, 2022: Militants attack a civilian bus in Deir Ez-Zor, eastern Syria. The attack kills three and wounds 21 others. Although no group claims responsibility for the attack, large parts of the Deir Ez-Zor area are controlled by ISIS.
May 25, 2022: ISIS-K militants launch a series of explosions in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan. The explosions kill nine. The same day, ISIS-militants detonate a bomb inside a mosque in Kabul. The explosion kills as many as five and wounds as many as 22 others.
April 29, 2022: A suicide bomber detonates a bomb at the Khalifa Sahib Mosque in western Kabul, Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least 50 and injures hundreds of others. A day later, ISIS-K claims responsibility for the attack.
April 28, 2022: Suspected ISIS gunmen ambush a Ramadan iftar gathering in Deir Ezzor province, northeast Syria. The attack kills seven and wounds four others. Among those killed was Nouri Hasmish, the former spokesperson of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
April 21, 2022: ISIS-K militants carry out a series of bombings that target Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims. The deadliest of three bombings occurs at a Shiite mosque in northern Mazar-i-Sharif. The explosion kills 12 and injures as many as 40 others, In Kabul, a roadside bomb explodes near a boy’s school, injuring two. A third bomb detonates in Kunduz, and 11 mechanics working for the Taliban are injured. On April 22, ISIS-K releases a statement claiming the explosive device that devastated Mazar-i-Sharif’s Sai Doken mosque was hidden in a bag left inside among scores of worshippers. As they knelt in prayer, it exploded.
April 19, 2022: ISIS militants detonate an explosive at a market in Iware, a village in the central region of Nigeria. The attack causes 30 casualties, but it is unreported exactly how many of those casualties were deaths or injuries.
March 27, 2022: Two gunmen open fire on police in the Israeli city of Hadera, killing two passersby and wounding six. Police shoot and kill the attackers, who are identified as Arab-Israeli citizens from the Arab-majority Israeli city of Umm al-Fahm in the northern district of Haifa. ISIS claims responsibility for the “twin immersive commando attack by Islamic State Fighters.” After the attack, ISIS’s Amaq News Agency distributes a video of two masked gunmen pledging allegiance to the group. On March 29, Israeli security forces arrest two Israeli Arab citizens suspected of ties to ISIS.
March 22, 2022: An attacker stabs multiple people at a shopping center and gas station in Beersheba, Israel, killing four and wounding two others. At the start of the attack, the assailant runs over a bicyclist in Beersheba before driving to a gas station where he exits the car and stabs a woman. The attacker drives to a shopping center, exits the car, and stabs two other people. He returns to the car and drives into another vehicle. He exits the car and stabs another victim before he is shot and killed by an armed civilian. Police identify the attacker as Muhammad Alab Ahmed abu Alkiyan, an Israeli Bedouin from Hura who had previously spent time in prison for supporting ISIS. Police arrest two of Alkiyan’s brothers who allegedly saw him leave their home with the knife. Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah praise the attack, which aligned with the anniversary of the assassination of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin. ISIS reportedly claims responsibility for the attack.
March 4, 2022: ISIS militants detonate a bomb targeting a Shiite mosque in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan. According to the Peshawar police chief, there was at least one gunman on a motorcycle who killed two police guards before entering the mosque and detonating a suicide vest. The attack kills at least 57 and wounds more than 100 others.
January 22, 2022: An explosive attached to a minivan detonates in Herat, western Afghanistan. The explosion kills at least seven and wounds nine others. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack the next day.
January 21, 2022: ISIS militants ambush an army barracks in al-Azim district, north of Baghdad, Iraq. The militants kill 11 soldiers before escaping.
January 20–26, 2022: On January 20, more than 100 ISIS militants launch an attack on Gweiran Prison in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, in an attempt to free detained ISIS fighters. The prison, which is the largest of around a dozen facilities run by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, held over 3,000 inmates, including ISIS commanders and other dangerous jihadists. The militants were armed with heavy machine guns and explosive-laden vehicles. The attack began with one explosion and was closely followed by two more, with one bomb hitting a nearby petroleum depot that resulted in a fire that continued into the next day. Kurdish forces attempted to repel the extremists and the inmates, with fighting lasted over two days. According to Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish forces, the attack was ISIS’s biggest since its territorial defeat in Syria in 2019. Additionally, Shami states the attack was led by foreign insurgents, many of whom spoke in Iraqi dialect. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack and later releases a video showing militants holding prison kitchen staff captive. According to the New York Times, jihadists were using more than 600 boys detained in the complex as “human shields.” Fighting continues through the 24th—with the United States launching airstrikes to retake control of Hasakah—and 300 ISIS insurgents surrender that day. Media sources claim at least 27 Kurdish fighters and 180 inmates are killed in the days long attack. According to a spokesman for the SDF, between 400 and 500 inmates originally escaped, with the majority being recaptured. Despite the surrender of 300 ISIS fighters, as of January 25, ISIS still controlled one-quarter of the prison and threatened to kill hostages and child detainees if the coalition continues to assault the prison. On January 26, the U.S.-backed Syrian forces announced they retook full control of the prison. As many as 200 U.S. soldiers fought alongside the Kurdish-led forces.
January 9, 2022: ISIS-K fighters launch an attack on a house in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Taliban claim to have repelled the militants, killing three and arresting two others during the gunfight.
January 3, 2022: According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS militants launch an attack near oil installations on the edge of Deir Ezzor province, eastern Syria. The militants kill ten soldiers in the attack. That same day, ISIS militants launch a rocket attack on a military transport bus traveling to Palmyra desert, southeast of Damascus, Syria. The attack kills between five and nine soldiers and injures 15 to 20 others.
December 27, 2021: ISIS militants ambush a car carrying Adham Dabash al-Abes, the leader of the SDF, in Dhiban, Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria. The militants kill al-Abes and one of his escorts as well as injure another escort.
December 17, 2021: U.S.-supported Moroccan security forces arrest an alleged ISIS supporter from the country’s Sala Al-Jadida region and confiscate explosive materials.
December 7, 2021: A motorcycle bomb in Basra, Iraq, kills at least four and wounds 20. ISIS claims responsibility.
December 6, 2021: Alleged ISIS militants from Syria attack Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq in Ninevah province’s Makhmour district.
December 5, 2021: ISIS militants attack the Qara Salem village in northern Iraq, killing four Peshmerga soldiers and a civilian and wounding four others. Separately, ISIS fighters attack and capture Luhaiban village. Iraqi and Peshmerga forces recapture the village the following day.
December 2, 2021: ISIS militants attack multiple homes in Khidir Jija in Iraq’s Makhmour region, killing 10 Peshmerga soldiers and three civilians.
November 27, 2021: A Peshmerga convoy hits a roadside bomb in Iraq’s Diyala province. ISIS snipers attack Peshmerga forces attending to the wounded, killing five.
November 17, 2021: A car bomb in Kabul’s Dasht-e Barchi neighborhood kills at least one and wounds six. A second explosion is reported later in Kabul’s Karte 3 area. ISIS claims responsibility for both explosions.
November 16, 2021: Three suicide bombers explode in Kampala, Uganda, killing at least three and wounding 33. Police shoot and wound a fourth would-be suicide bomber in a northern suburb of Kampala. Police initially blame the attacks on the Allied Democratic Forces, but ISIS later claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency.
November 15, 2021: A magnetic bomb attached to a vehicle explodes in the Kota-e Sangi district of Kabul, wounding at least two people. There are no immediate claims of responsibility, but the bombing is similar an ISIS-claimed bombing two days earlier.
November 13, 2021: An explosive device planted in police barracks in the Bajaur district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province kills two. ISIS claims responsibility.
November 13, 2021: A magnetic bomb attached to a minibus in the Kabul suburb of Dasht-e Barchi kills at least one and wounds at least four. The neighborhood is largely populated by the Hazara minority. ISIS claims responsibility.
November 12, 2021: A bomb explodes during Friday prayers at a Sunni mosque in Traili in Afghanistan’s Nangahar province, wounding at least 15. ISIS is suspected.
November 2, 2021: Gunmen and at least one suicide bomber attack a Kabul military hospital, killing at least 25 and wounding more than a dozen. An explosives-filled car outside the hospital also explodes. The attack targets the 400-bed Sardar Daud Khan hospital, which treats both soldiers for the former government and Taliban fighters. Gunmen reportedly enter a ward filled with wounded Taliban fighters and shoot them in their beds. ISIS-K claims responsibility.
October 26, 2021: ISIS gunmen attack the Shiite village of al-Rashad in Iraq’s Diyala province, killing at least 11 and wounding 15. The militants reportedly kidnapped two villagers and then attacked the village when their ransom demands were not met.
October 15, 2021: A group of suicide bombers detonate explosives at the Imam Barga mosque in Kandahar during Friday prayers. The explosion, which targeted Kandahar’s largest Shiite mosque, kills 47 and wounds another 68. ISIS-K claims responsibility for the attack.
October 8, 2021: An ISIS-K suicide bomber detonates an explosive at the Shiite Sayed Abad mosque in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan. At least 43 people are killed and more than 140 are injured. ISIS-K released a statement claiming the attacker belonged to the Uighur community—an ethnic minority group that has been regularly oppressed by the Chinese government. Chinese officials have previously raised concerns that Afghanistan could potentially become a safe haven for Uighur militants seeking to attack Chinese government interests due to the systemic oppression of the Uighurs in western China.
October 3, 2021: Iraqi security forces open fire on a suicide bomber in an explosives-filled car in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province. The bomber detonates his explosives, killing himself and wounding five others. ISIS is suspected. Later in the day, ISIS militants attack the Diyala village, north of Bagdad, killing at least two soldiers and wounding two others. The Iraqi air force bombs an ISIS hideout in response.
October 3, 2021: A bomb detonates outside of the Eidgah mosque in Kabul. The blast allegedly targeted a funeral service that was held for the mother of Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. At least five people were killed in the attack. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the blast, stating in a Telegram post that one of their fighters managed to evade security forces at the funeral and detonate his explosive belt.
September 30, 2021: ISIS militants shoot and kill 45-year-old Satnam Singh inside his herbal medicine clinic in Peshawar. The gunmen escape. An ISIS claim of responsibility accuses the Sikh civilian of being a polytheist.
September 28, 2021: ISIS agents attempt to smuggle 500 kilograms of TNT into Iraq from Syria via car. Iraqi security forces stop the car at the border and seize the explosives.
September 22, 2021: ISIS-K militants carry out at least two bombings and a gun attack in Jalalabad. The shooting attack kills three people, including two Taliban fighters. ISIS-K has purposely targeted the Taliban in recent attacks as they describe the self-imposed regime as “the apostate militia” as they follow a less rigid form of Sunni Islam.
September 18 – 19, 2021: A series of explosive devices were set off around the city of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, over two days. According to on-the-ground sources, the explosions kill at least three people and injure about 20 others. Of a total of six explosions during the weekend, one attack targeted a Taliban vehicle that killed one child and injured two others, including a Taliban member. ISIS-K claims responsibility for the explosions, claiming that more than 35 Taliban members were killed or wounded.
September 17, 2021: ISIS militants plant and detonate explosives on a major natural gas pipeline southeast of Damascus, Syria. There are no reports of deaths or injuries. The gas pipeline feeds the Tishreen and Deir Ali power plants which generate half of Syria’s power needs. The explosion affected several other smaller stations and caused blackouts in Damascus before power was restored half an hour later. Maintenance on the pipeline began on September 18, but has led to severe energy rationing until the pipeline is restored.
September 11, 2021: Suspected ISIS militants attack a unit of Iraqi federal police officers in Kirkuk province’s Daqduq district, killing at least three and wounding several others. A roadside bomb targets Iraqi reinforcements.
September 5, 2021: Suspected ISIS militants attack police officers in Satiha village in the al-Rashad region of Kirkuk, killing three. Police reinforcements arrive but additional officers are ambushed by roadside explosives. At least 13 officers are killed and five are wounded in the attack. Another officer is reported missing.
September 3, 2021: A man enters an Auckland supermarket where he grabs a knife on display and goes on a stabbing spree. The assailant shouts “Allahu akbar” before stabbing and wounding six people. Within 60 seconds of the start of the attack, New Zealand police shoot and kill the assailant. The assailant, a Sri Lankan national who had been in New Zealand for 10 years, was known to authorities and had been monitored by police for about five years. The attacker was a known supporter of ISIS ideology.
September 2, 2021: An ISIS cell of 30 militants attacks the Shahali Kon village in the Sargaran sub-district of Kirkuk province, killing at least one Iraqi soldier and wounding six civilians. The militants kidnap one civilian before Iraqi forces repel the attackers.
August 26, 2021: A suicide attack is carried out at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, near Abbey Gate. According to media reports, as many as 170 people and 13 U.S. service members were killed, with an additional 200 wounded. The Taliban condemn the attack, later launching an investigation into the perpetrators. That evening, ISIS-K issues an official statement on Telegram claiming responsibility for the attack. On February 4, 2022, U.S. military officials brief reporters on the results of an investigation into the ISIS-K bombing at Abbey Gate. The investigation, led by Brigadier General Lance Curtis, interviews more than 130 people and spanned five countries over three and a half months. The investigation finds that none of the casualties were injured or killed by gunfire, contradicting previous claims that casualties were a result of both a suicide bomber and ISIS-K gunmen. According to media sources, the report also determines that a single suicide bomber—who possessed 20 pounds of explosives packed with ball bearings—carried out the attack alone.
August 21, 2021: ISIS militants ambush members of the Noujaba Movement—a pro-Iranian militia—at their base in Tarmiya, near Baghdad. The ambush kills three.
August 3, 2021: ISIS militants attack Safra village in Kirkuk province’s Rashad district, killing Iraqi federal police officers. One militant is killed and another is wounded during the attack.
July 30, 2021: Gunmen attack a funeral in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, killing at least eight. Officials do not specify the number of casualties. A local security official accuses ISIS of responsibility.
July 21, 2021: Unidentified gunmen attack the headquarters of the 66th Army Brigade in the Mutaibija area in Salahuddin province, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding three others. Iraqi officials blame ISIS.
July 19, 2021: A suicide bomber detonates in the Al-Wuhailat market in Baghad’s al-Sadr City, killing at least 35 and wounding more than 60. The attack occurs on the eve of the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha. ISIS claims responsibility through its Nasheer news agency on Telegram.
June 12, 2021: Magnetic bombs attached to two minivans explode in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least seven and wounding six altogether. The two attacks take place two kilometers away from each other. The second bombing takes place in front of the in front of the Muhammad Ali Jinnah hospital, killing one and wounding four. ISIS claims responsibility for the attacks targeting “disbeliever Shiites.”
June 8, 2021: ISIS militants attack a British-American charity in Baghlan province in Afghanistan. The attack kills at least 10 and injures 16 others. The charity, HALO Trust, clears land mines in the country. The militants allegedly sought to target the Hazaras, a persecuted Shiite minority.
June 6, 2020: A suicide bomber detonates an explosive at a checkpoint in Sebha, Libya. The attack kills two and injures four others. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.
May 29, 2021: A minivan of university lecturers strikes a roadside bomb and students in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, killing at least four and wounding 11. ISIS claims responsibility, calling the victims “Shiite apostates.”
May 14, 2021: A bomb explodes in a mosque during Eid al-Fitre prayers in Shakardara district in Afghanistan’s Kabul province, killing 12 and wounding 15. The Taliban condemn the attack, which takes place during a three-day ceasefire. ISIS claims responsibility the following day over Telegram.
April 30, 2021 – May 1, 2021: Suspected ISIS fighters attack Iraqi troops in Tarmiya overnight, killing four. Another five are killed after Iraqi reinforcements arrive, including a civilian.
April 25, 2021: ISWAP fighters attack a Nigerian military convoy in Borno State, killing at least 31.
April 17, 2021: Militants use explosives to attack two oil wells at the Bai Hassan oilfield near Kirkuk. There is no significant damage reported. ISIS claims responsibility.
April 17, 2021: ISIS-affiliated militants in Egypt release a video of the murder of a Coptic Christian and two tribesmen. Two days later, Egypt’s interior ministry claims Egyptian forces had killed at least three of the militants involved during a battle that day.
April 15, 2021: A bomb placed under a vehicle in al-Sadr city in Baghdad kills four and wounds 17. ISIS claims responsibility.
April 13, 2021: ISWAP fighters attack Damasak, Nigeria, killing eight and wounding 12. The attackers burn down a police station, a clinic, a U.N. building, and other structures. It is the fourth attack on the town in four days.
April 9, 2021: An IED explodes at the home of the head of the local council in al-Harmousheya, Syria, causing damage but no casualties. ISIS claims responsibility.
April 8, 2021: ISIS fighters fighter RPGs in the Syrian town of town of al-Shuhayl, causing material damage. ISIS fighters then ambush SDF patrols in the area and detonate an explosive device, killing four.
April 7, 2021: ISIS fighters attack the town of Palma in Mozambique. The bodies of 12 suspected white foreigners are found tied up and beheaded.
April 6, 2021: ISIS fighters on motorbikes attack a police station in al-Saan, Syria, killing at least one civilian. The militants take hostage eight soldiers and police officers, along with 11 civilians. Up to 46 others are captured but later released. The attack is reportedly ISIS’s largest operation in at least three years.
March 22, 2021: Suspected ISGS militants attack three villages in Niger’s Tahoua region, killing at least 137. The attackers also burn livestock and buildings.
March 15, 2021: Suspected ISGS militants attack a bus in Banibangou, Niger, and then attack a nearby village, killing at least 66. The attackers also burn down granaries.
March 15, 2021: Gunmen on motorbikes and pickup trucks attack a military post in Ansongo, Mali, killing 33 soldiers and wounding 14. At least 20 jihadists are also killed in the assault. The gunmen belong to Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency almost a week later. ISIS also claims it captured three vehicles, weapons, and ammunition during the attack.
March 12, 2021: Militants wearing military uniforms raid multiple houses in al-Boudur in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, killing eight people, including six members of a single family. ISIS claims responsibility the following day and alleges the targeted family had been part of a PMF spy ring. Iraqi authorities confirm ISIS’s responsibility.
March 2, 2021: In two coordinated attacks, gunmen shoot and kill three female journalists—21-year-old Mursal Wahidi, 21-year-old Sadia Sadat, and 20-year-old Shahnaz Raufi—walking home from work in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani blames the killings on the Taliban and an atmosphere of violence the group promotes. The Taliban deny responsibility. ISIS soon after claims responsibility.
March 1, 2021: Gunmen in trucks and on motorcycles attack the town of Dikwa, Nigeria, burning down the police station, the primary health center, and attacking U.N. humanitarian offices. The militants leave the town the following day. The military does not report any casualties, but local media reports claim at least 15 soldiers are killed. Authorities identify the attackers as members of ISWAP.
February 26, 2021: ISWAP gunmen attack the town of Dikwa, Nigeria, forcing residents to flee.
February 22, 2021: ISIS militants attack a checkpoint of the IRGC-backed al-Qura Guards militia in al-Asharah city in Deir Ezzor, Syria, killing at least four. ISIS also attacks various Syrian military outposts in the Syrian desert, killing at least eight regime-backed militiamen. Russia carries out airstrikes over ISIS position in response. Separately, ISWAP militants attack a military base in Marte, Nigeria, killing at least eight soldiers.
February 19, 2021: Suspected ISWAP militants on trucks fitted with machine guns attack an army base in Dikwa, Nigeria, forcing soldiers to withdraw until an aerial assault drives the militants back.
February 9, 2021: Suspected ISIS fighters attack an SDF security checkpoint in the Abu Khashab desert, killing four.
February 8, 2021: ISIS militants ambush a military convoy of Syrian army soldiers and IRGC-Quds Force members in Deir Ezzor, killing at least 26. Eleven ISIS fighters are also killed.
February 4, 2021: ISIS militants attack Iraqi army forces in the town of Jalawla in Diyala province, killing two Iraqi soldiers and wounding two others.
Late January 2021: ISIS kidnaps two local female officials from their homes in al-Dashisha. The decapitated bodies of the two women are found hours later.
January 24, 2021: Gunmen ambush a bus carrying government soldiers in Deir Ezzor, killing three and wounding 10. ISIS claims responsibility.
January 23, 2021: Militants ambush a PMF battalion east of Tikrit in the Salahaddin province, killing 11 and wounding 10. Iraqi authorities suspect ISIS.
January 21, 2021: A suicide bomber claims to be ill in a crowded marketplace in Baghdad and sets off his explosives when a crowd gathers around him. A second bomber reportedly claims to be an injured victim of the first blast and detonates his explosives when a crowd gathers around him. The two bombings kill at least 32 and wound 110 others. It is the first suicide bombing in Baghdad’s commercial area in three years. ISIS claims responsibility. The Iraqi government launches Operation Revenge of the Martyrs in response. The top ISIS commander in Iraq, Abu Yasser al-Issawi, a.k.a. Jabbar Salman Ali Farhan al-Issawi, is killed on January 28 in Kirkuk. On February 2, the U.S.-led coalition uses Iraqi military intelligence to launch an airstrike in southern Iraq, killing two ISIS commanders— Abu Hassan al-Gharibawi and Ghanem Sabah Jawad—allegedly involved in the planning of the January 21 suicide attacks. Gharibawi was ISIS’s leader in southern Iraq. On February 20, security forces reportedly kill the local commander of ISIS operations in the Tarmiya area.
January 18, 2021: ISIS landmines detonate in Syria’s Deir Ezzor province. The explosion kills 10 Russian soldiers.
January 15-16, 2021: ISWAP gunmen attack and capture a military base in Marte, Nigeria. Casualties are reported but the army does not clarify how many soldiers are killed. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency. ISIS claims it killed seven soldiers and captured another while seizing weapons, ammunition, and vehicles.
January 3, 2021: Militants attack a coal mine in the Mach area of Bolan district in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, abducting and then killing 11 of Pakistan’s Shiite Hazara minority. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency. Four others are wounded.
December 31, 2020: Explosions target three buses carrying regime soldiers in Deir Ezzor, killing at least 28 and injuring at least 13 others. Some reports claim as many as 37 are killed. It is suspected that ISIS carried out the attack.
December 30, 2020: ISIS militants ambush three buses in southern Syria. According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIS militants planted explosives on the road between central Homs and Deir Ezzor provinces, and then opened fire at the buses. The attacks kill at least 37, all of which were soldiers returning home for the holidays.
December 13, 2020: Militants detonate a bomb attached to an armored vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan. The attack kills two and wounds two others. That same day an Afghan government prosecutor is shot dead in eastern Kabul. It is suspected that ISIS is behind both attacks.
December 10, 2020: Malalai Maiwand, an Afghan journalist, is shot dead by ISIS gunmen in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Her death is the latest in a number of attacks carried out by ISIS against media personalities. According to an Afghan official, the Taliban and ISIS have allegedly created a terror cell that specifically targets journalists in Kabul.
November 29, 2020: Two Katyusha rockets strike the Siniya oil refinery in Salahuddin province in Iraq, causing a small fire but no casualties. ISIS claims responsibility.
November 24, 2020: A woman wielding a knife attacks two shoppers in a Lugano, Switzerland store. The assailant, a Swiss-Italian woman, reportedly praises ISIS while attempting to decapitate the two victims. The victims do not suffer fatal injuries. Pedestrians manage to subdue the attacker until police are able to arrest the woman.
November 22, 2020: A car strikes a roadside bomb in Salahuddin province in Iraq. Militants ambush and open fire on soldiers who arrive at the scene after the explosion. At least six soldiers and four civilians are killed in the attack. There are no immediate claims of responsibility, but Iraqi authorities suspect ISIS.
November 21, 2020: A barrage of rockets strike the center of Kabul, killing at least eight and wounding more than 24 others. ISIS claims responsibility.
November 9, 2020: Militants throw grenades at and open fire on Al-Radwaniyah lookout point west of Baghdad, killing 11 and wounding eight. The lookout is overseen by state-sponsored tribal forces. There are no immediate claims of responsibility, but Iraqi authorities suspect ISIS.
November 2, 2020: ISIS-affiliated gunmen storm Kabul University in Kabul Afghanistan. The attack kills at least 22 and wounds another 22 others. The gunmen took hostages and exchanged fire with security forces for more than five hours. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming it had targeted a “graduation gathering for judges and investigators of the apostate Afghan government.”
November 2, 2020: A gunman armed with an automatic rifle and a fake explosive vest opens fire in a busy nightlife district in Vienna, Austria. The assailant kills four and injures 22 others before he is shot dead by police. The attacker, Kujtim Fejzulai, was a 20-year-old Austrian-North Macedonian dual citizen who sympathized with ISIS. A day later, ISIS’s Amaq News Agency released a statement on Telegram claiming responsibility for the attack. The statement was accompanied by a photo of Fejzulai who is identified as “Abu Dagnah Al-Albany,” posing with weapons. According to media reports, Fejzulai was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019 for attempting to join ISIS in Syria but was granted early release in December 2019. The Austrian Foreign Ministry labeled the assault a terror attack, which Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described as “clearly an Islamic terror attack.” The attack began the night before Austria was set to begin a new coronavirus lockdown, with bars and restaurants closing for a month at midnight.
October 24, 2020: A suicide bomber attacks an education center in Kabul. The explosion kills at least 24 and wounds over 57. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack in a statement on Telegram.
October 20, 2020: ISIS fighters attack a jail in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo. Following the ambush, in which jihadists broke the prison’s door with electrical equipment, at least 1,300 prisoners escape. The city’s mayor, Modeste Bakwanamaha, claims the attack was the work of the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan rebel group that has been reportedly linked to the ISIS financial network. However, Amaq, ISIS’s official news outlet, confirms that ISIS carried out the attack.
October 16, 2020: An assailant shouting “Allahu akbar”—“God is great” in Arabic—decapitated history teacher Samuel Paty in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Police shot and killed the suspect, who was armed with a kitchen knife and an air gun. Paty had recently received death threats after showing caricatures of the Islamic Prophet Mohammad in class as part of a lesson on freedom of speech. Police identified the suspect as 18-year-old Russia-born Chechen Abdoulakh Anzorov, who had received residency in France as a refugee, and whose sister had previously joined ISIS. Witnesses reported afterward that Anzorov had previously been seen at the school asking students about Paty. Police found messages planning the attack on Anzorov’s cell phone and that he had had uploaded a picture of Paty to Twitter prior to the attack. Police also discovered that prior to his own death, Anzorov posted video and images of the attack to Russian-speaking ISIS supporters, who disseminated the materials on Telegram. Those materials also included a video confession. Paris authorities arrested an additional 11 suspects in connection to the attack and launched investigations into several French groups suspected of promoting Islamism. Three days after Paty’s murder, French prosecutors found no direct link between radical French Islamist movements and Anzorov, but they pointed to a hateful atmosphere on social media and identified an indirect link between these groups and the crime.
September 26, 2020: ISWAP militants ambush the convoy of Borno governor Babagana Umara Zulum near the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad. The convoy was escorting displaced Nigerians back to their homes in Baga, Borno State. The attack kills at least 30 and injures over 13 others.
September 9, 2020: ISWAP militants carry out two attacks in the Lake Chad area of Nigeria’s Borno State. The ambushes kill more than 12, with 27 soldiers unaccounted for following the attacks.
September 6, 2020: ISIS militants ram a vehicle into a National Guard patrol in the tourist district of Sousse, a coastal city in Tunisia. The attack kills one officer and wounds another. According to Tunisian officials, at least seven people have been arrested in connection to the attack, including two twin brothers who reportedly visited Facebook pages dealing with “explosive and armed attacks,” but somehow managed to evade Tunisian authorities.
August 20, 2020: ISWAP militants overrun the town of Kukawa in northeastern Nigeria. The insurgents take hundreds of hostages, many of whom had recently returned to the village after spending two years in displacement camps.
August 9, 2020: Jihadist militants on motorcycles ambush a tour group at the Koure Giraffe Reserve in Niger, killing six French aid workers as well as their Nigerien tour guide and driver. The French victims worked for the French NGO Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED). A month later, ISIS claims responsibility for the attack and credits ISWAP. According to French President Emmanuel Macron, however, ISGS leader Adnan al-Sahrawi personally ordered the attack.
August 3, 2020: ISIS militants ambush a prison complex in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. The assailants detonate a car bomb and wage a gun battle with guards for hours. Over 270 inmates, belonging both to the Taliban and ISIS, manage to escape. The attack kills at least 29 and wounds 42 others. The ambush occurred in the final hours of a three-day ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban for Eid al-Adha.
August 2020: In August, ISIS militants carried out at least 35 attacks in Syria. The attacks killed at least 76 pro-Assad regime fighters in the Homs, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, Hama and Aleppo governorates. The attacks focused primarily in the western urban belt stretching from Deir Ezzor city along the Euphrates to Ma’adan, and secondarily in the desert west of Mayadeen. Notably, on August 27, ISIS militants ambushed NDF fighters in western Deir Ezzor. Most of the men killed hailed from the local Busaraya tribe. The massacre triggered a massive mobilization of tribal members from the pro-regime Liwa al-Quds, Qaterji Forces, and NDF deploying to the region to conduct their own anti-ISIS operations in lieu of what one tribal fighter told this author was an abandonment by the Syrian army. The operation began on August 30 and as of September 2020, remains active.
July 2020: In July, ISIS militants carried out at least 23 attacks, killing at least 29 pro-regime fighters in the Homs, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, Hama, and Aleppo governorates. July marked the third month in a row that ISIS carried out at least one high quality attack in all four provinces in which it is active. Among ISIS’s seven high quality attacks this month were targeted killings of the Syrian Army 4th Division’s commander of the Mayadeen Sector in Deir Ezzor and of a Border Guard colonel in southeast Raqqa. Reported attacks in Deir Ezzor continue to be few and far between, although a July 9 ambush of a Border Guard position left at least three regime soldiers dead. Instead, ISIS activity appeared heavily concentrated around the Sukhnah area of east Homs, where ISIS militants regularly attacked regime forces with mines, IEDs, and heavy machine guns. Additionally, on July 28, approximately 40 ISIS militants attempted to raid an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warehouse on the southwest edge of the city, engaging in a five-hour battle with local security forces before ultimately retreating.
July 9, 2020: ISWAP militants ambush a military convoy in Bulabulin village, northeast Nigeria. The attack kills 23 soldiers and wounds two others.
June 13, 2020: Militants armed with rocket launchers and other heavy weaponry attack Monguno, Nigeria, killing at least 40 soldiers and 20 civilians and wounding hundreds more. The attackers burn down a U.N. humanitarian hub and set fire to a police station. Simultaneously, militants attack Nganzai, Nigeria, killing at least 40. ISWAP claims responsibility.
June 2, 2020: ISIS militants detonate a bomb inside a mosque in Kabul. The attack kills two and injures two others. The mosque is located in a high-security diplomatic area near several international organizations and embassies.
June 2020: In June, ISIS militants carried out at least 14 attacks in Syria. The attacks killed at least 26 pro-regime fighters in the Homs, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa and Hama governorates. On June 18, ISIS militants targeted an Army checkpoint in central Raqqa. The attack kills six and wounds five others. On June 21, ISIS attacks a military base in Deir Ezzor. At least two soldiers are killed in the attack and several others were captured.
May 31, 2020: ISIS members detonate a roadside bomb that strikes a minibus carrying employees of Khurshid TV, a television station ISIS calls “loyal to the Afghan apostate government.” The Kabul attack kills two and injures seven others.
May 23, 2020: ISIS militants detonate an explosive at the security gate of the Libyan National Army in Trajan, southern Libya. According to ISIS’s media wing, the explosive led to the destruction of a military vehicles. Despite the explosion, no casualties are reported.
May 23, 2020: ISIS fighters attack a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Zammar district in Nineveh province, northern Iraq, killing three officers. Observers suspect the attack is revenge for the arrest of ISIS commander Abdul Nasser Qardash earlier in the month.
May 18, 2020: ISIS gunmen execute 11 people along a desert highway between Deir Ezzor and Damascus in Syria. All but one of the victims are pro-regime fighters.
May 17, 2020: Pakistani police kill four militants in a clash with ISIS fighters in Punjab province. According to police, the fighters were tasked with carrying out an attack on Shiites in Bahawalpur in order to incite sectarian divisions.
May 15, 2020: ISIS militants in Iraq attack positions belonging to the Iraqi security forces and PMF in Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahuddin, and Baghdad provinces. At least eight are killed and at least nine are wounded. Suspected ISIS militants kidnap and behead a youth in Tarmiyah.
May 12, 2020: Three militants wearing police uniforms attack Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital in Kabul and besiege the maternity hospital for five hours until they are killed by security forces. At least 80 women and infants are evacuated from the hospital. At least 24 people, including two newborn babies, are killed. There are no immediate claims of responsibility, but U.S. officials blame ISIS. Separately, a suicide bomber kills at least 32 people and wounds more than 60 at the funeral of local pro-government militia commander and former warlord in Nangarhar province’s Khewa district. Separately, a remotely detonated bomb in a market in Khost kills a child and wounds 10 people. ISIS claims responsibility for both attacks.
May 11, 2020: Four bombs wound four in Kabul, Afghanistan. ISIS claims responsibility. Separately, ISIS militants burn crop fields in Iraq’s disputed Makhmour district. ISIS militants had previously threatened farmers in the area if they did not pay taxes to the terror group.
May 1, 2020: PMF fighters clash with militants in the village of Mekeeshfa, south of Tikrit. Six PMF fighters are killed in the fighting, while another three PMF fighters are killed by a roadside bomb as reinforcements arrive. Another PMF fighter is shot dead in the nearby Tal al-Dahab village. The military says the attacks were coordinated. ISIS is suspected of responsibility.
April 28, 2020: Two militants drive to the gate of the Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Directorate in Kirkuk. A militant wearing an explosive vest gets out of the car and throws a grenade at the building. He then detonates an explosive vest. At least three security personnel are wounded. The second militant drives away. There are no immediate claims of responsibility, but security forces suspect ISIS.
April 21, 2020: A roadside IED blows up under an army vehicle in the vicinity of the Um Hanta village in Diyala province, killing two soldiers. A sniper kills a police officer near a public university campus in Baqubah. A roadside bomb on the road connecting Quneitra and al-Lazakah villages in Nineveh province kills at least two. ISIS is suspected in all three attacks.
April 10, 2020: ISIS launches an attack in Homs, central Syria. ISIS manages to take control of some neighborhoods in Al-Sukhna. The attack kills at least 27 pro-government fighters.
April 6-7, 2020: On April 6, gunmen launch an overnight attack on a federal police checkpoint in the village of Daquq. Three roadside IEDs explode as reinforcements arrive, wounding three. On April 7, militants attack Peshmerga forces in the town of Kujalo, killing two. Separately, a roadside bomb blows up an Iraqi federal police convoy in the Daquq district of the Kirkurk province, wounding two. ISIS is suspected in all three attacks.
March 25, 2020: Gunmen throw grenades and shoot indiscriminately during an attack on a Sikh temple in Kabul, killing at least 25 and wounding at least eight. The gunmen take up to 200 hostages during a six-hour standoff with security forces, who eventually kill all three attackers. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.
March 10, 2020: ISIS militants launch an attack in Khanaqin, Diyala province, where the Iraqi Army soldiers and the Popular Mobilization Forces are stationed. The attack kills two members of the Iraqi Army and one Shia Hashd al-Shaabi militia member.
March 9, 2020: U.S. forces conduct an anti-ISIS mission in ISIS’s stronghold in mountainous area of north central Iraq. Two American troops are killed during the operation, while four others are injured by enemy forces.
March 9, 2020: ISIS launches a rocket attack during president-elect Ashraf Ghani’s Inauguration ceremony. The assailants launched five missiles to target the presidential palace. It is unclear if there were any casualties, despite claims from ISIS’s official news agency claiming an “injury was delivered.”
March 8, 2020: ISIS militants open fire on security forces belonging to Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces and U.S.-led coalition forces in Makhmour, northerna Iraq. The joint operation was a mission to eliminate a stronghold for the militant group in north-central Iraq. The attack kills two U.S. service members, U.S. Marine Corps Captain Moises A. Navas and Gunnery Sergeant Diego D. Pongo.
March 6, 2020: Two gunmen open fire on a crowded event in Kabul. The attack kills 32 and injures at least 58 others. The event commemorated the life of an ethnic Hazara leader who was killed by Taliban militants in 1995. ISIS-K, ISIS’s branch in Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Hazara are a minority Shiite Muslim group who are frequently targeted by both ISIS and the Taliban.
February 18, 2020: ISIS militants attack a security checkpoint in Jawala, Iraqi Kurdistan. The attack kills one Iraqi soldier and injures at least three others.
February 13, 2020: ISIS militants attack a village in Khanaqin. The targets were a Kurdish religious minority known as the Kakais. The attack kills two and injures 10 others.
February 2, 2020: Masked gunman blow up a gas pipeline in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. There are no casualties reported. The following day, ISIS’s Sinai Province claims responsibility, asserting that the pipeline connected to Israel’s offshore gas field. ISIS also claims the pipeline it targeted was in the Sinai village of Al Teloul. Egyptian authorities dispute the claim, saying the pipeline was a domestic one and connected to a power station in el-Arish.
January 15, 2020: ISIS members ambush a border checkpoint at the Al-Waleed port in Iraq. The attack wounds four.
January 10, 2020: ISIS fighters plant a bomb that detonates inside a mosque in Quetta, Pakistan. The attack kills at least 15 and wounds at least another 18. The mosque was frequented by senior Taliban figures. ISIS and the Taliban have long battled each other for control of territory in Afghanistan.
January 5, 2020: ISIS fighters ambush security forces in Tal Diab Village in Kirkuk province. The attack kills two soldiers and injures three others.
December 24, 2019: ISWAP militants ambush a military base in Hallele, Burkina Faso. The attack kills seven.
December 10, 2020: Hundreds of ISWAP militants attack a military camp in Inates, Niger. The attack kills at least 71 soldiers and injured 12 others. The attack is the country’s deadliest Islamist attack since 2015.
November 11, 2019: ISIS militants ambush Iraqi military forces in Khanaqin, Iraq. The attack kills four and wounds seven others. The military forces were assessing damage following Iraqi airstrikes on ISIS hideouts near Hamrin Lake.
November 6, 2019: ISIS militants attack a security checkpoint on the Tajikistan-Uzbekistan border. The attack kills at least 17. The militants crossed into Tajikistan from northern Afghanistan where the border is porous.
November 3, 2019: Armed militants ambush an army post in northern Mali. The attack kills at least 54. Although ISIS claims responsibility for the attack, following the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in October of 2019, ISIS has claimed multiple attacks without providing evidence.
September 20, 2019: Dozens of ISWAP fighters on motorbikes and in pickup trucks ambush a military base in Koutougou, northern Burkina Faso. The attack kills 24 soldiers, the country’s worst insurgent attack.
September 8, 2019: A woman suspected of being a suicide bomber is killed in an explosion near a military detachment in the southern Philippines. No casualties or injuries are reported. If confirmed, the incident would be the fourth suicide bombing in the southern Philippines in 14 months.
September 7, 2019: An ISIS militant detonates a bomb in a public market in the southern Philippines. The attack wounds at least seven Filipino Christians.
August 31, 2019: Two cows harnessed to explosive vests wander into the outskirts of Al Islah, Iraq. The bombs detonate, killing the cows and damaging nearby houses, but not harming any people. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack as the militant group resorts to unconventional attack methods when lacking manpower.
August 30, 2019: An ISIS militant on a motorcycle targets a patrol from Yemen’s Security Belt group in Yemen. The attack kills six southern separatist fighters.
August 17, 2019: A suicide bomber infiltrates a wedding in Kabul and detonates his bomb-laden vest. The attack kills 63 and injures 182. ISIS’s Khorasan Province claims responsibility for the bombing. The attack was meant to target the Shiite community, but the fatalities included members of both Sunni and Shiite sects.
August 1, 2019: ISIS detonates a car bomb in a military camp for the Security Belt forces—the elite military wing of the Southern Transitional Council—in Aden, Yemen. The attack kills 13 policemen.
July 31, 2019: Militants attacks a military post in Baga, Borno. The attack kills at least 15 soldiers. Later, the militants storm army barracks in the town of Benisheik where they kill another 25 soldiers. ISIS claims responsibility for the attacks via its Amaq News Agency.
July 25, 2019: A magnetic bomb attached to a bus in Kabul, Afghanistan, explodes. The bus is carrying employees of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum. A suicide bomber on a motorbike then blows up nearby after emergency services arrive. The attack kills at least eight and wounds 27 others. ISIS claims responsibility. A third bombing less than two miles away wounds at least 17. The Taliban claim responsibility for the third bombing.
July 23, 2019: An Indonesian couple carry out a suicide attack in a Cathedral in Jolo, the Philippines. At least 23 people are killed and more than 100 are wounded. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.
July 18, 2019: A suicide bomber detonates a bomb in a car park in Sheikh Zuweid, on Egypt’s border near the Gaza Strip. One civilian and one member of the Egyptian security forces are killed. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack.
July 18, 2019: Militants from ISIS’s West Africa Province attack an aid convoy in Nigeria’s Borno State, killing one and taking hostage six aid workers from the NGO Action Against Hunger. A week later, ISIS releases a video of the one of the hostages begging Action Against Hunger and the Nigerian government to help them.
July 17, 2019: Four headless bodies are found in an empty street in the North Sinai town of Bir al-Abd. ISIS claimed responsibility for the beheadings, claiming the four were spies for the Egyptian military.
July 17, 2019: Fighters from ISIS’s West Africa Province ambush a military patrol vehicle on near Jakana in Nigeria’s Borno State, killing all six soldiers on board. The militants then attack a military base in Jakana but are repelled by Nigerian forces, according to the military.
July 11, 2019: A car bomb detonates outside of a Christian church in Qamishli, Syria. At least 11 people are injured in the attack. ISIS claims responsibility for the attack despite having lost its last stronghold of Baghuz in March.
July 5, 2019: A bomb explodes at the Mohammadiya mosque in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, killing at least two and wounding 20 others. ISIS claims responsibility and claims the bombing wounded 40 at the Shiite mosque.
July 1, 2019: Militants blow up two cars at a military camp in Niger. Gunmen on motorcycles then open fire at the base, killing at least 18 soldiers. Four other soldiers are reported missing. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency.
June 28, 2019: An explosion at a military base on the Philippine island of Jolo kills at least five and wounds nine. ISIS claims through its Amaq News Agency that multiple suicide bombers had infiltrated the base and killed or wounded 100 soldiers.
June 27, 2019: Two suicide bombers attack police positions in Tunis, killing two and wounding seven others. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency. The attack’s alleged mastermind, Aymen Smiri blows himself up in Tunis on July 2 after being surrounded by police. There are no other casualties from that explosion.
June 25, 2019: ISIS militants attack four Egyptian police positions in el-Arish in Egypt’s Sinai, killing eight and wounding two. One of the attackers detonates an explosives belt during clashes with Egyptian forces after the attack. Three other militants are killed during the clashes. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency while claiming it carried out multiple simultaneous raids.
June 5, 2019: ISIS militants attack a military checkpoint in Egypt’s northern Sinai Peninsula, killing at least eight policemen. Egyptian forces kill at least five of the militants after the attack.
June 4, 2019: ISIS issues a statement claiming its Central Africa Province repelled an “attack” by the army in Mozambique. ISIS also claims its fighters captured weapons, ammunition, and rockets. It is ISIS’s first claim to be operating within Mozambique. Police deny that ISIS was responsible for the fighting.
June 2 – 3, 2019: On June 2, four bombings in Kabul kill at least two and wound 27. On June 3, a bomb explodes near a bus in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least four and wounding 10. ISIS claims responsibility for both days of bombings. Also on June 3, militants attack a security patrol in Tripoli, Lebanon, killing four. ISIS claims responsibility in July through its Al-Nabaa newspaper but does not provide evidence.
May 19 – 20, 2019: Militants armed with knives spark a riot at a prison in Vakhdat, Tajikistan, leaving three guards and five prisoners dead. The militants also burn down the prison hospital and take several prisoners hostage in an attempt to escape. Prison authorities kill 24 of the militants while quelling the riot. Tajik authorities blame ISIS for instigating the riot.
May 14, 2019: Militants ambush a military convoy in Niger near the Malian border, killing 28 soldiers. ISIS claims responsibility two days later.
May 9, 2019: A suicide bomber blows up in a market in Baghdad, Iraq, killing at least eight and wounding 15. ISIS claims responsibility.
May 4, 2019: ISIS militants attack a military training camp in Sabha, Libya, belonging to forces loyal to General Khalifa Haftar, killing at least nine. ISIS claims it killed or wounded at least 16.
April 21, 2019: Coordinated suicide bombings at three hotels and three Catholic churches across Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday kill at least 250 people and wound approximately 500 others. On April 23, ISIS releases a claim of responsibility through its Amaq News Agency, though the group does not provide evidence of its claim. Sri Lankan officials suspect two local Islamist groups of responsibility: National Thowheeth Jama’ath and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim. Mohamed Atif Subhi Abu SittaRuwan Wijewardene, Separately on April 21, militants kill three soldiers and wound another in the Butembo area of the Democratic Republic of Congo. ISIS claims responsibility four days later.
April 20, 2019: A suicide bomber blows himself up at the entrance of the telecommunications ministry in Kabul, Afghanistan. Four gunmen then attack the ministry, killing 10 people during a three-hour gun battle with Afghan forces. The attackers are killed during the course of the battle. ISIS claims responsibility the following day.
April 18, 2019: ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency for a shooting attack in Kamango, Democratic Republic of Congo, that killed three. ISIS credits the attack to its new affiliate, Wilayat Central Africa. It is the group’s first attack claimed in the Congo.
April 12, 2019: A suicide bomber explodes in a vegetable market in Quetta, Pakistan, killing at least 20 and wounding at least 48. At least nine of the dead are part of the minority Shiite Hazara community, which has been targeted in the past. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi initially claims responsibility. ISIS releases a conflicting claim of responsibility and a photo of the alleged bomber.
March 2019: The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launch an assault on ISIS’s last territorial hold in Baghuz, Syria, on March 10. ISIS releases a propaganda video claiming “tomorrow we will be in paradise.” At least 20 suicide bombers attack SDF positions during the fighting. On March 12, hundreds of ISIS fighters and their families reportedly surrender to rebel forces. The SDF declare that the battle to retake Baghuz is as “good as over.” The SDF claim to have killed 112 ISIS fighters by March 13.
January 16, 2019: An explosion in the U.S.-patrolled town of Manbij kills at least 16, including four U.S. citizens. ISIS claims responsibility.
April 2, 2018: Approximately 400 ISIS fighters attack Iranian-backed militias in the Syrian town of Boukamal, killing 11 pro-government fighters. Five ISIS militants are also killed.
March 2018 – May 2018: On March 12, ISIS fighters attack the rebel-held al-Qadam neighborhood of southern Damascus. ISIS reportedly takes control of 25 percent of Qadam. On March 13, the Syrian government evacuates approximately 300 rebel fighters from Damascus to the Idlib province. The rebels turn their remaining territory over to the Syrian government, which takes control of approximately 70 percent of Qadam. ISIS attacks rebels during the evacuation. On March 14, ISIS forces attack Syrian army positions and gain ground in southern Damascus after several days of fighting. At least 62 Syrian army soldiers are killed. The Syrian army sends thousands of reinforcements to southern Damascus in April to force ISIS from Qadam and surrounding areas, including the nearby Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, which ISIS had occupied since 2015. On May 18, the Syrian government reportedly reaches a truce with the militants. On May 19, the government begins evacuating ISIS fighters in buses under a reported deal for the government to retake full control of southern Damascus, though the government denies any deal exists.
January 5, 2018: ISIS renews its offensive against Syrian rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra), capturing at least two villages in south-eastern Idlib, Syria.
January 4, 2018: A suicide bombing at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills at least 20 and wounds at least 24. ISIS claims responsibility through its Amaq News Agency but doesn’t provide direct evidence linking it to the attack.
December 28, 2017: ISIS claims responsibility after a suicide bomber kills at least 41 at a Shiite cultural center in Kabul, Afghanistan.
December 27, 2017: A small bomb in a supermarket locker wounds 13 in St. Petersburg, Russia. ISIS claims responsibility but provides no evidence that it is behind the attack. Police arrest Dmitry Lukyanenko, who reportedly belongs to a nationalist group and has received “psychiatric treatment” in the past.
December 11, 2017: Akayed Ullah, a Bangladeshi native, detonates a pipe bomb in the subway tunnel under the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. The bomb does not detonate properly and no one is seriously injured except for Ullah. Ullah had previously declared allegiance to ISIS, according to New York officials.
November 25, 2017: Militants carrying the ISIS flag carry out a bomb and gun attack on the al Rawdah mosque in Bir al-Abed in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing at least 305 people and wounding at least 128 others in the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
October 31, 2017: Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov, an Uzebk national living in the United States, drives a truck down a bike path in New York City in a vehicular attack that kills eight people and injures at least twelve others. He is shot and taken into custody. Saipov tells authorities that he was inspired to carry out the attack by ISIS propaganda videos.
October 4, 2017: Gunmen and a suicide attacker kill at least four people and injure almost 40 others in an attack on a court complex in Misrata, Libya. ISIS claims responsibility.
August 17-18, 2017: On August 17, a van crashes into a crowd of people on the Las Ramblas pedestrian walkway in Barcelona. The following morning, five attackers attempt to ram people in the resort city of Cambrils south of Barcelona, then begin to stab passersby before they are killed by police. Altogether, 16 people are killed and at least 130 others are wounded in both attacks. ISIS claims responsibility for both attacks.
August 12, 2017: A suicide bomber on a motorcycle carries out an attack on a Pakistani army truck in Quetta, Pakistan, killing 15 people and injuring at least 40 others. ISIS claims responsibility.
May 26, 2017: Gunmen attack two buses and a truck carrying Coptic Christians to the monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 29 people. It is ISIS’s first attack against a monastery.
May 22, 2017: Salman Abedi detonates a homemade bomb at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, killing himself and 22 other people and wounding more than 800. It is the deadliest terror attack in Britain since the July 2005 London bombings. ISIS claimed responsibility for the Manchester attack on May 23, 2017, calling Abedi a “soldier of the caliphate.” On May 23, police in Libya arrest Abedi’s younger brother, Salman, who is later extradited to the United Kingdom. In March 2020, Salman Abedi is found “jointly responsible” for the Manchester attack and convicted on 22 counts of murder, attempted murder, and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life.
May 17, 2017: A suicide attack on state-run the Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA) broadcasting station in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, kills at least five people and wounds 24 others. Three other assailants are killed in a gun battle with security forces. ISIS claims responsibility.
April 9, 2017: A bomb explodes at St. George’s Church in Tanta, Egypt, while a suicide bomber targets St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Alexandria. The bombings kill a combined 45 people.
March 8, 2017: ISIS operatives a suicide bomb and gun attack at a hospital in Kabul, killing 30 people.
February 16, 2017: ISIS suicide bombers attack an 800-year old Sufi Muslim shrine in Sehwan, Pakistan, killing at least 88 people—including 24 children—and wounding at least 200 others. That same day, a car bomb planted by ISIS kills at least 48 people and wounds 60 more at an outside market in the southwestern al-Bayaa neighborhood of Baghdad.
January 3, 2017: ISIS suicide bombers kill at least 39 people at a market in Baghdad.
January 1, 2017: A 34-year-old Uzbek named Abdulkadir Masharipov opens fire at a nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, killing 39 people and injuring 70 others. ISIS claims Turkish officials believe that Masharipov had contact with ISIS militants inside Syria.
December 19, 2016: A 40-year-old Tunisian ISIS sympathizer drives a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, killing 12 people and injuring 48. ISIS claims responsibility.
December 18, 2016: ISIS gunmen carry out an attack at Karak Castle, a popular tourist destination in Karak, Jordan, leaving 10 people dead.
December 11, 2016: ISIS suicide bombers attack a Coptic cathedral in Cairo, killing 25 people. ISIS claims responsibility two days later.
November 28, 2016:U.S. resident and ISIS sympathizer Abdul Razak Ali Artan carries out a knife- and car-attack at Ohio State University where he is a student, wounding 11 people before he is shot dead. ISIS later claims responsibility.
October 24, 2016: ISIS claims responsibility for a suicide bombing at a cadet training center in Quetta, Pakistan, killing 60 people and injuring more than 100 others.
October 21, 2016: ISIS militants reportedly execute 284 men and boys who they had used as human shields on the outskirts of Mosul.
October 4, 2016: A bomb explodes in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar Province, killing a U.S. service member. ISIS claims responsibility.
October 3, 2016: ISIS suicide bombers target a Kurdish wedding party in northeast Syria, killing at least 36 people.
September 24, 2016: Three suspected ISIS insurgents carry out coordinated suicide bombings at a security checkpoint in northern Baghdad, killing 11 security personnel.
September 17, 2016: U.S. resident Dahir Adan allegedly goes on a stabbing spree in a mall St. Cloud, Minnesota, injuring 10 people. ISIS claims responsibility.
September 12, 2016: An Australian man loyal to ISIS stabs a 59-year-old man and attempts to attack a police officer in Sydney, Australia.
August 29, 2016: ISIS operatives carry out a suicide car bomb attack in Aden, Yemen, killing at least 60 people.
August 21, 2016: A suicide bomber kills 51 people at a wedding in Gaziantep, Turkey. The Turkish government blames ISIS.
August 8, 2016: A suicide bomber in Quetta, Pakistan, kills approximately 70 people and wounds more than 100. ISIS claims responsibility.
August 7, 2016: An Algerian man acting on behalf of ISIS wounds two policewomen in a machete attack in Charleroi, Belgium. ISIS claims responsibility.
July 31, 2016: ISIS operatives raid the Bai Hassan oil field near Kirkuk, Iraq, and take four employees hostage. The militants are killed by security personnel.
July 27, 2016: A bombing carried out by ISIS militants kills 44 in the Syrian Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli.
July 26, 2016: ISIS operatives slit the throat of a priest in a church in Normandy, France.
July 18, 2016 – July 24, 2016: ISIS claims responsibility for two attacks in Germany. In the first, on July 18, a 17-year-old Afghan refugee armed with a knife and ax injures four people—all of them from Hong Kong—on a train traveling from Treuchlingen to Wurzburg. In the second, on July 24, a 27-year-old Syrian refugee carried out a suicide bombing, injuring 12 people, outside of a music festival in Ansbach.
July 14, 2016: A Tunisian-French citizen named Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France. The attack kills 84 people and wounds over 300. ISIS claims responsibility two days later.
July 3, 2016: ISIS militants detonate a minivan packed with explosive in central Baghdad, killing at least 292 and wounding 200 others.
July 1, 2016: ISIS operatives kill 20 people in a café in Dhaka, Bangladesh, after taking them hostage.
June 28, 2016: Three suicide bombers attack Turkey’s Ataturk international airport, killing 45 and wounding more than 230. Turkish authorities allege ISIS leadership was involved in planning the attack. On the same day, ISIS militants carry out the group’s first successful attack in Malaysia, launching a grenade at a nightclub in Kuala Lumpur. The attack wounds eight.
June 13, 2016: Larossi Abballa stabs to death two married French police officers, and pledges allegiance to ISIS directly after the attack. ISIS officially claims responsibility.
June 12, 2016: In the deadliest mass shooting on American soil, U.S. citizen Omar Mateen murders 49 and wounds 53 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. While carrying out the attack, Mateen calls 911 and pledges allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Later on June 12, ISIS claims responsibility for the shooting, writing on its Amaq news agency Telegram channel that “an Islamic State fighter” had “targeted a nightclub for homosexuals….” On June 13, ISIS releases another claim of responsibility on its official Al Bayan radio station, referring to Mateen as “one of the soldiers of the caliphate in America.”
June 8, 2016: Two Palestinian terrorists, allegedly inspired by ISIS, kill four Israeli civilians and wound 15 at a food mall in Tel Aviv.
June 7, 2016: ISIS claims responsibility for its first car bombing in the largely Shiite city of Karbala, Iraq. The attack kills 10 and wounds 25.
June 5, 2016: ISIS’s Amaq News Agency claims the killing of a Christian in Northwestern Bangladesh and a Buddhist monk in the country’s southeast.
April 7, 2016: ISIS militants kidnap over 300 cement workers from a cement plant near Damascus, Syria.
April 2016: ISIS executes at least 250 women for refusing to enter into temporary marriages with ISIS militants.
March 22, 2016: ISIS operatives carry out three bombings in Brussels, Belgium, in the worst attack in that country’s history. At 8 a.m., two bombs explode at the airport in Zaventem. At 9 a.m., one bomb detonates at the Maalbeek metro station. The attacks kill 32 and wound 270.
Early January 2016: ISIS launches counterattacks on Iraqi soldiers in Ramadi.
January 5, 2016: ISIS releases a video in which a British-accented man, believed to be Abu Rumaysah, threatens the United Kingdom.
December 3, 2015: ISIS releases a video purporting to depict the beheading of a Russian spy. The executioner addresses Russians, saying, “You will not find peace in your homes. We will kill your sons ... for each son you killed here. And we will destroy your homes for each home you destroyed here.”
December 2, 2015: Two shooters kill 14 at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. The perpetrators, a husband and wife named Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, are shot dead.
The shooters were reportedly ISIS sympathizers. Malik pledged allegiance to ISIS via Facebook while carrying out the attack. Farook’s later father told an Italian newspaper: “[Farook] said he shared the ideology of (ISIS leader Abu Bakr) al-Baghdadi to create an Islamic state….” The shooting represents the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11.
November 18, 2015: ISIS releases a propaganda video threatening New York City in the wake of the Paris attacks. A voice in the video says, “…What’s coming next will be far worse and more bitter.”
November 13, 2015: Eight assailants carry out multiple simultaneous attacks in Paris, killing 130 and seriously injuring more than 350. French President Francois Hollande labels the attacks an “act of war” and orders a national state of emergency. ISIS claims responsibility.
September 15, 2015: Two car bomb attacks kill more than 20 and injure more than 100 others in Syria’s northeastern Kurdish city of Hasakah. The local Kurdish forces blame the attack on ISIS.
September 16, 2015 – September 17, 2015: ISIS releases five videos amid the refugee crisis in Europe, urging the Syrian and other refugees to leave Europe and travel to the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
September 15, 2015: Danish teenager Lisa Borch receives nine years in prison for stabbing her mother to death after becoming radicalized by watching ISIS beheading videos online.
September 15, 2015: Two car bomb attacks kill more than 20 and injure more than 100 others in Syria’s northeastern Kurdish city of Hasakah. The local Kurdish forces blame the attack on ISIS.
September 1, 2015: ISIS releases a video depicting the burning alive of four Iraqi men accused of working with Shiite militias.
September 1, 2015: The U.N. confirms that ISIS militants have destroyed the ancient Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria.
August 30, 2015: ISIS fighters severely damage the Temple of Baal, another major religious shrine in Palmyra. By August 31, the United Nations confirms that the Temple of Baal has been destroyed.
August 25, 2015: ISIS releases a video showing its members destroying the Baalshamin temple in Palmyra, Syria. Satellite imagery confirms the destruction.
August 21, 2015: ISIS fighters use chemical weapons during a battle near Aleppo, Syria, according to an August 23 finding by the Wall Street Journal.
August 18, 2015: ISIS militants publically execute the archeologist of Syria’s ancient city Palmyra.
August 14, 2015: U.S. officials confirm suspicions that ISIS used a mustard agent on its enemies in Syria.
August 9, 2015: ISIS reportedly plots to assassinate the Queen of England.
August 7, 2015: ISIS captures and holds dozens of Christians in Syria’s Homs province.
July 17, 2015: Kurdish officials, field investigators, and a Western technician report that ISIS militants have used rudimentary chemical weaponry against Kurdish territory in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks.
July 17, 2015: ISIS’s Sinai Province claims responsibility for an attack on an Egyptian vessel.
July 16, 2015: The International Business Times reports that ISIS has crucified 12 people for allegedly failing to fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
July 3, 2015: ISIS releases a video of a row of young men being beheaded in the empty amphitheater in Syria’s Palmyra.
July 2, 2015: ISIS militants decimate cultural artefacts in the Syrian city of Palmyra, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
June 30, 2015: Yemen-based ISIS militants claim responsibility for a car bomb in Sanaa that kills 28. In northern Syria, ISIS insurgents launch a renewed attack on the Kurdish town of Tal Abyad after being repelled two weeks prior.
June 26, 2015: ISIS takes credit for an attack on tourists at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel and the Sofil Hostel in Sousse, Tunisia.
June 26, 2015: ISIS’s Saudi wilaya attacks a Shiite mosque in Kuwait City.
June 17- 29, 2015: ISIS’s Yemeni wilaya detonates VBIEDs at Shiite religious sites and Houthi political and military assets.
June 12, 2015: ISIS’s wilaya in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region conducts public beheadings, killing five.
June 09-10, 2015: ISIS’s Egyptian wilaya targets the Multinational Force and Observers airbase in North Sinai using rocket fire.
Mid-April 2015: ISIS releases a propaganda video threatening a “9/11-style attack” on the United States. ISIS supporters spread the message on Twitter using the hashtag “We Will Burn America.”
April 10, 2015: ISIS launches an assault, including suicide and car bombers, on Ramadi, Iraq. The group seizes northern parts of the city by the end of the day. At least 10 Iraqi soldiers are killed and General Qassim al-Muhammadi, Iraq’s military head in Anbar province, is wounded.
April 6, 2015: ISIS kills 52 men, mostly Iraqi police officers, at the al-Qaim border crossing with Syria. ISIS captured the victims when it overran the border area the year before.
Early April 2015: ISIS reportedly sends an email to the personal account of Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan threatening his life. According to media, the email came from a Gmail account and the author said he ISIS paid him to kill Rajan but he would spare Rajan for more money.
March 21, 2015: ISIS releases an online call to lone-wolf attacks against U.S. service members. The group reportedly releases the names of 100 targets in particular.
March 11, 2015: A new ISIS video shows a child executing what the group claims is an Israeli spy.
March 7, 2015: ISIS razes the ancient city of Hatra in northern Iraq, destroying archaeological ruins.
March 5-6, 2015: ISIS attacks the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq, razing the city and bulldozing archaeological ruins.
March 1, 2015: ISIS supporters threaten to kill Twitter employees as the company deletes some violent ISIS videos on the site and suspends a number of accounts.
February 26, 2015: In the culmination of a multi-day offensive on Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria, ISIS militants kidnap further hostages, bringing the total number of Assyrian Christian hostages to 262.
February 23, 2015: ISIS’s media department releases a new video depicting caged Kurdish prisoners being paraded down ISIS-controlled streets.
February 23, 2015: ISIS militants burn the Mosul public library, which reportedly housed over 8,000 rare books and manuscripts.
February 18, 2015: A top Iraqi diplomat alleges that ISIS is harvesting and selling the organs of those it murders. Iraqi Ambassador to the United Nations Mohamed Alhakim declares: “We have bodies. Come and examine them. It is clear they are missing certain parts.”
February 17, 2015: ISIS militants burn to death 45 Iraqis, many of them suspected to be security forces.
February 15, 2015: ISIS uploads a video showing the gruesome killing of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian laborers in Libya. The men were kidnapped from the city of Sirt, led to a beach, and made to kneel before they were beheaded by multiple ISIS members. The group identifies its newly conquered land in Libya as the “Tripoli” Province of ISIS, leading analysts to believe that Libya is emerging as a ‘second front’ for the organization.
February 13, 2015: ISIS launches a suicide attack on the al-Asad airbase in Iraq’s Anbar province, where U.S. and coalition troops are training Iraqi forces. A Pentagon spokesman states that an estimated 20-25 extremists, disguised as Iraqi soldiers, are involved in the attack. Most are killed by their suicide vests or by Iraqi government forces. No Iraqi or U.S. troops are killed, nor were U.S. soldiers involved in the gunfight. This comes after ISIS took control of a nearby town, their first territorial gain in months.
February 12, 2015: ISIS makes advances on the western Iraqi province of Anbar where their first attack is a suicide bombing at a police station. This is only miles away from the Ayn al-Asad airbase, where 320 coalition personnel are training Iraqi troops and tribal fighters.
February 11, 2015: U.S. President Barack Obama requests that Congress pass a bipartisan authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against ISIS. The administration’s draft AUMF only authorizes flexible ground operations with coalition support for three years. According to some congressional sources, the anti-ISIS AUMF will extend beyond Iraq and Syria.
February 10, 2015: The U.S. government confirms the death of Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker and the last American hostage held by ISIS. ISIS claims that she was killed when a Jordanian fighter plane bombed a building where she was being held. The claim cannot be confirmed and no proof was offered. Mueller had been captured in August 2013 at a Doctors Without Borders hospital. ISIS had threatened to kill her if several million euros were not paid in ransom by her family.
February 3, 2015: ISIS posts a video and still images of Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage. Al-Kasasbeh was a member of an important Jordanian tribe and the first prisoner from the coalition bombing ISIS. Jordanian officials say that he was actually killed on January 3. In response to the group’s most cruel execution to date, Jordan executes Sajida al-Riswahi, convicted of attempting a suicide bombing and the prisoner ISIS had earlier asked for in a prisoner swap for Japanese hostage Haruka Yukawa. Jordan also executes Ziad al-Karbouli, a top lieutenant of al-Qaeda in Iraq, convicted of helping to plan 2005 bombings in Amman that killed more than 57 people. Both were already sentenced to death for terrorism.
January 31, 2015: The second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, is reported executed. A video is released online showing his decapitated body. The video begins with the man known as “Jihadi Joe” brandishing his knife, stating, “[Prime Minister] Abe, because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are round. So let the nightmare for Japan begin.”
January 30, 2015: ISIS attacks oil-rich Kirkuk in northern Iraq after months of fighting the Peshmerga, fighters protecting the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The attack is possibly a diversion against Kurdish efforts to take Mosul, ISIS’s stronghold. Among those killed by ISIS are Brigadier General Shirko Fateh, the highest-ranking operational commander of the Peshmerga brigade.
January 27, 2015: ISIS claims responsibility for an attack at the five-star Corinthia hotel in Tripoli, Libya. Nine people are killed, including five foreign nationals. It is the first attack on western interests in Libya. ISIS’s profile in Libya increases along with Islamic State Tripoli (IS Tripoli) in western Libya and ISIS-affiliated branches, Barqua in the east and Fezzan in the south. Many analysts attribute ISIS’s rise in Libya to the anarchic state of the country. This is partly due to the ongoing battle between the internationally recognized government in the eastern city of Tobruk and Libya’s National Salvation government, which is alliedwith the Islamist-backed Fajr Libya in Tripoli in the west.
December 24, 2014: ISIS militants capture a Jordanian pilot flying over ISIS-controlled territory in northern Syria by shooting down his jet with an anti-aircraft missile. The Jordanian pilot is identified as Moaz Youssef al-Kasabeh. ISIS militants post photographs of the captured pilot surrounded by masked gunmen on Twitter. They also upload photos of the jet’s debris, as well as Kasabeh’s military identification card. This represents the first US-led coalition aircraft to be lost on ISIS-controlled territory.
December 18, 2014: Tunisian militants aligned with ISIS appear in a video, threatening attacks before Tunisia’s upcoming presidential runoff. The armed militants urge Tunisians to expand the Islamic State across North Africa, and claim that Tunisians “will not live secured as long as Tunisia is not governed by Islam.” The militants also claim responsibility for the 2013 assassinations of left-wing politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi.
December 17, 2014: ISIS fighter Abu Anas Al-Libi murders over 150 women and girls- some of whom are pregnant- for refusing to partake in sexual acts and marriage with ISIS fighters. The women and girls’ bodies are buried in mass graves west of Baghdad.
December 17, 2014: A mass grave containing over 230 bodies is discovered in eastern Syria. The dead are believed to have belonged to al-Sheitaat, a Sunni tribe against ISIS. The deaths bring the number of al-Sheitaats killed by ISIS over 900.
December 15, 2014: ISIS militants capture two key army bases in the northwestern province of Idlib, Syria. The two bases, Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh, are significant losses for the Syrian army, who had them under its control for more than two years. The battle results in dozens of casualties on each side.
December 15, 2014: Up to 40 people are taken hostage by an Islamist gunman at a Lindt Chocolate café in Sydney, Australia. The hostages are forced to hold a black flag with Arabic inscription to the window, raising fears that ISIS is responsible for the attack. Dozens of police surround and eventually storm the premises. After a shootout between police and the gunman, three people (including the gunman) are killed, with four injured. The gunman, Man Haron Manis, is described as a 50 year-old Iranian who had received political asylum in Australia in 1996.
December 15, 2014: ISIS authorities release a penal code titled “Clarification [regarding] the Hudud [Koranic punishments].” The document details the appropriate punishment- according to sharia- for various illegal acts, including homosexuality: “death for the person committing the act, as well as for the one receiving it,” and banditry: “cutting of the right hand and the left leg.” ISIS claims to have distributed the penal code as a reminder to the people living in the “caliphate,” and warns that it will be vigilantly enforced.
December 13, 2014: ISIS militants shoot down an Iraqi helicopter, killing two pilots onboard. It is suspected that the militants used a shoulder-fired rocket launcher. ISIS shot down two other Iraqi military helicopters in October 2014.
December 2, 2014: ISIS supporters in Saudi Arabia release a video purportedly showing the shooting of a Danish national in Saudi Arabia. The video includes clips of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as well as ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani calling on Saudis to “kill and spit upon” Westerners fighting ISIS.
November 16, 2014: ISIS releases a video showing that they have beheaded American hostage Peter Kassig. Kassig’s death appears at the end of a 16-minute video titled “Although the disbelievers dislike it,” in which ISIS members behead a group of Syrian soldiers. The scenes in which the soldiers are beheaded are edited in a way to increase the viewer’s horror: slow-motion shots of the beheadings and sound effects of panicked breathing and slitting throats. In the video, Jihadi John speaks over Peter Kassig’s beheaded corpse: “This is Peter Edward Kassig, a U.S. citizen of your country. Peter, who fought against the Muslims in Iraq while serving as a soldier under the American Army, doesn’t have much to say. His previous cellmates have already spoken on his behalf…You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago. We said to you then that you are liars.” Jihadi John continues: “your forces will return greater in number than they were before. We also remind you of the haunting words of our Sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who told you: 'The spark has been lit here in Iraq and its heat will continue to intensify by Allah’s permission until it burns the crusader army.'”
November 13, 2014: Rumors of al-Baghdadi’s death are put to rest following a speech in which the leader calls for “volcanoes of jihad.” It is unclear if the video was made before or after the airstrike carried out on November 8, in which many high-level ISIS militants were killed. In the video, Baghdadi mocks the U.S. for sending its soldiers “to their death and destruction.” Baghdadi also shares the “good news” of the expansion of the caliphate. According to Baghdadi, jihadist groups from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Algeria have pledged allegiance to ISIS.
November 3, 2014: Human Rights Watch releases a report on ISIS’s practice of kidnapping and torturing child hostages from the city of Kobani.
November 2, 2014: ISIS continues summarily killing members of the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe. 50 members are found dead in a water well. ISIS summarily executes 50 additional members of the tribe and kidnaps 65 members of the tribe. According to the Iraqi government, ISIS has thus far killed 322 members of the Al Bu Nimr tribe. Canada launches its first airstrike against ISIS.
November 1, 2014: Turkey allows precisely 150 Iraqi Kurdish forces to arrive in the Syrian city of Kobani. ISIS summarily executes 50 members of the Sunni Al Bu Nimr tribe.
October 31, 2014: ISIS fighter claims the group controls 90% of the city of Kobani. That same day, the United Nations releases a press statement condemning ISIS and expressing “deep outrage” at the group’s actions.
October 30, 2014: Human Rights Watch releases a report on the group, saying that summary executions of ISIS prisoners “amount to war crimes and most likely crimes against humanity.”
October 26, 2014: Casualties over the fight for Kobani reveal at least 302 Kurdish fighters and 21 civilians have been killed in 40 days of fighting over the town, two of the civilians killed by beheadings. Evidence surfaces that ISIS may be using advanced surface-to-air missile systems to shoot down coalition missiles.
October 21, 2014: ISIS releases a video in which seventeen-year-old Australian Abdullah Elmir, nom de guerre Abu Khaled, speaks to the camera with dozens of young jihadists by his side. He says: “I say this about your coalition: you threaten us with your countries, bring every nation that you wish to us, bring every nation that you want to come and fight us… we will not put down our weapons until we reach your lands, until we take the head of every tyrant and until the black flag is flying high in every single land, until we put the black flag on top of Buckingham Palace, until we put the black flag on top of the White House.” In Canada, a gunman whose photo is tweeted by an ISIS-linked account kills a reservist before storming into Ottawa’s parliament.
October 20, 2014: 40 people are killed in Iraq by ISIS in a quadruple car bombing and a suicide bombing inside a mosque. Local officials remarked that the attacks were specifically aimed against Shiites, as they took place near holy Shiite shrines and a Shiite mosque.
October 19, 2014: A Syrian revel commander is reportedly shot and wounded in a kidnapping attempt by ISIS militants within Turkish borders. In the southern Turkish city of Urfa, ISIS has safe houses and is believed to “operate without impunity.” It was in Urfa that ISIS militants kidnapped Abu Issa, but ultimately failed to bring him into Turkey. There is increasing international condemnation on Turkey concerning Turkey’s apparent relaxed stance on ISIS militants in the South of the country, including ISIS’s smuggling operations from Turkey into Syria.
October 14, 2014: An ISIS bomber kills 24 and wounds 40 at a crowded checkpoint into a majority Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. Among the dead was Ahmed al-Khafaji, Shiite member of Parliament and member of the Badr Organization, a Shiite group that controls a Shiite insurgency fighting ISIS.
October 8, 2014: ISIS militants shoot down an Iraqi military helicopter with a shoulder-fired missile- killing two onboard- for the second time in less than a week. The helicopter was believed to be a Bell 407 aircraft, generally used for surveillance.
October 5, 2014: The fighting in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani intensifies, with ISIS sending rockets into the town and neither side claiming victory. Kurdish pesh merga forces state that Western-led airstrikes are not enough to stop ISIS militants from taking Kobani.
October 5, 2014: A document found by Iraqi special forces, believed to be written by Abdullah Ahmed al-Meshedani, a member of ISIS’s six-man war cabinet, states that ISIS plans to steal Tehran’s ‘nuclear secrets’ and wage war on Iran’s Shiite government. Meshedani writes that ISIS will depend on Russia to “give up Iran and its nuclear…. secrets” by offering Russia access to Iraqi gas fields controlled by the group. First, Meshedani writes, Moscow must give up its support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and join in the Gulf States’ coalition against Iran. The document also lists 70 plans of ethnic cleansing to target Shiite Iraqi authorities- as well as Shiite Iran- in the interest of building the ‘new caliphate’. The manifesto also calls for the assassination of Iranian diplomats, teachers and businessmen, along with Iraqi military chiefs, Iranian-backed militias fighting for the Iraqi government, and Shiite officials.
October 3, 2014: ISIS releases a video depicting the beheading of English taxi-driver Alan Henning. The video takes place in the same area that James Foley, Steven Sotloff, and David Haines were beheaded. In the video, Henning, wearing the usual orange jumpsuit, says: “Hi, I am Alan Henning. Because of our Parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State, I — as a member of the British public — will now pay the price for that decision.” Right before the decapitation, ‘Jihadi John’, the executioner, says: “Obama, you have started your air bombardment in Sham [an area referring to Syria and Lebanon] which keeps on striking our people. It is only right that we continue to strike the necks of your people.” According to some analysts, ISIS seemed to have waited to behead Henning until after the start of Britain’s airstrikes on the group. The video ends with Jihadi John threatening the execution of American hostage Peter Kassig if the airstrikes on ISIS do not cease.
October 2, 2014: The UN publishes a report stating that upwards of 5,500 people have been killed by ISIS in Iraq alone since June, 2014. This includes hundreds of the Yazidi minority who were “slaughtered en masse.”
September 29, 2014: Shelling from ISIS during its attack on Kobani falls into Turkey, prompting the Turkish military to send tanks to its border with Syria.
September 26, 2014: ISIS militants persist in their conquest of the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, amidst airstrikes. Mass numbers of Kurdish Syrian refugees continue to pile into Turkey.
September 26, 2014: Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi tells US officials that ISIS had planned to attack subways in Paris and the United States. Western officials were skeptical of the news, and al-Abbadi was unable to provide concrete evidence for his claim.
September 24, 2014: On this same day, ISIS militants blow up the “Green Church” in Tikrit, Iraq, an ancient and holy site for Christians.
September 23, 2014: An 18-year old terror suspect in Australia is fatally shot by police after he attempts to stab two counter-terrorism officials. The suspect had displayed an ISIS flag and was shouting insults about Prime Minister Tony Abbott before his death.
September 23, 2014: Fighting between incoming ISIS militants and Kurdish forces intensifies in the Kurdish town of Kobani in northern Syria along the Turkish border. By September 24, at least 140,000 Syrian Kurdish refugees had crossed the border into Turkey.
September 23, 2014: The Algerian group linked to ISIS, Jund al-Khalifah, decapitates French mountaineer Hervé Gourdel, who they had held hostage for three days. The group say that they chose to behead Gourdel after the French government ignored the group’s call to end airstrikes on ISIS.
September 18, 2014: Australian police foil a “beheading plot” by Australian militants connected to ISIS.
September 13, 2014: ISIS releases another video in which British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines is executed. Some analysts see it as a warning to the British Government for supporting the US-led coalition against ISIS. The video is filmed in the same setting as the previous videos that ISIS has created: a nondescript area of what seems to be arid land beneath a blue sky. As in the other beheading videos disseminated by ISIS, “Jihadi John”, stands by a kneeling Haines. The still anonymous British terrorist says to the camera that “this British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the pesh merga against the Islamic State. Ironically, he has spent a decade of his life serving under the same Royal Air Force that is responsible for delivering those arms.” At the end of the video, “Jihadi John” names the next victim as British citizen Alan Henning.
September 6, 2014: Images on Twitter depict ISIS executing a second Lebanese soldier kidnapped when the group and the Nusra Front overran the Lebanese town of Arsal by the Syrian border last month. The soldier was identified as Abbas Medlij, a Shiite Muslim. ISIS and the Nusra Front reportedly continue to hold 17 Lebanese soldiers captive.
September 3, 2014: ISIS released another video, entitled “A Second Message to America,” showing a masked ISIS militant beheading kidnapped American journalist Steven Sotloff, as previously threatened. Before being killed, Sotloff said that he was “paying the price” for U.S. military intervention in Iraq. After the beheading, the ISIS militant, speaking with a British accent, said to U.S. President Barack Obama, “Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.” The militant also “warn[ed] those governments who've entered this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.” He also threatened another captive, David Cawthorne Haines, a British aid worker kidnapped last year on the Turkish-Syrian border. The Washington Post reported that the U.S. government believes “as many as a dozen Americans may be fighting alongside [ISIS] and that the group holds at least two other American hostages, both aid workers.”
September 2, 2014: Amnesty International reports that ISIS “has carried out ethnic cleansing on a historic scale in northern Iraq… systematically target[ing] 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 June 10, 2014.
August 30, 2014: ISIS posted a video of their fighters beheading one of the Lebanese soldiers they kidnapped when they and the Nusra Front captured and briefly held the Lebanese border town of Arsal in early August. The soldier, Ali al-Sayyed, was a Sunni Muslim. ISIS also posted another video of nine other captive soldiers pleading for their lives and calling on their families to hold street protests to seek the release of Islamist prisoners by the Lebanese government. ISIS has sought the release of Imad Ahmad Jomaa, an ISIS commander (formerly in the Nusra Front) who was arrested in Arsal in early August, as well as several other imprisoned Islamists.
August 20, 2014: ISIS released a video, entitled “A Message to America,” showing a masked ISIS militant beheading kidnapped American journalist James Foley and, speaking with a British accent, threatening to kill another such journalist, Steven Sotloff, if U.S. President Barack Obama did not stop U.S. military operations in Iraq.
August 11, 2014: ISIS militants defeated Kurdish peshmerga forces in the municipality of Jalawla.
August 7, 2014: ISIS took the strategically vital Mosul dam, driving out peshmerga forces from several towns. Hundreds of thousands of Yazidis flee the area.
August 7, 2014: ISIS fighters took control of Qaraqosh, the largest Christian municipality in Iraq. Tens of thousands of its residents fled.
August 2-7, 2014: Fighters from ISIS and the Nusra Front overrun the Lebanese town of Arsal by the Syrian border, killing several Lebanese soldiers, following repeated tensions with the Lebanese military. The fighters withdraw from Arsal on August 7 after Sunni clerics negotiate a truce, but they take a reported 19 captive Lebanese soldiers with them.
August 2-3, 2014: ISIS defeated Kurdish peshmerga fighters and takes over several towns previously held by the Kurds, including the towns of Sinjar and Zumar near Iraq’s border with Syria, as well as two small oil fields. During its conquest, ISIS kills up to 500 Yazidis, ethnic Kurds whom ISIS despises as “devil worshipers” and heretics subject to death for practicing an ancient, pre-Abrahamic religion. Upon entering Sinjar, ISIS noted the occasion by exploding a Shiite shrine and demanding that Sinjar residents convert to Islam or be killed. As many as 200,000 local residents fled, including other Yazidis. Many of the Yazidis (estimates range from 10,000 to 50,000) took refuge on Mount Sinjar. There, the Yazidis lacked sufficient food, water, and medicine, and were besieged by ISIS and threatened with death if they came down from the mountains. The UN warned of a “humanitarian tragedy.” As one besieged Yazidi noted, “We cannot get out of here; we cannot move. It's all [ISIS] fighters around us. If we move down they will kill us.”
August 1-5, 2014: ISIS militants crucify, behead and shoot over 700 members of the Shaitat tribe in eastern Syria, in what is one of ISIS’s bloodiest advances.
July 1, 2014: The UN stated that more than 2,400 Iraqis were killed in June, the most fatalities in one month in Iraq since April 2005.
June 11-14, 2014: On June 11, ISIS insurgents take over Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein and his clan. On June 12, ISIS forces attack Camp Speicher, a former U.S. Army base in Tikrit, killing between 1,095 and 1,700 Shiite Iraqi cadets and captives over three days. ISIS separates captives based on Islamic sect. ISIS gives Sunnis the opportunity to repent for serving the Iraqi government, while Shiites are executed. According to witnesses, approximately 3,000 trained Iraqi soldiers changed into civilian clothing and abandoned the camp when ISIS attacked rather than defend it. The exact number of casualties remains unverified. ISIS claims it killed 1,700 Shiite soldiers, which would make the massacre the worst sectarian massacres in recent Iraqi history. Human Rights Watch says satellite imagery and ISIS photos confirmed at least between 560 and 770 men were killed, but the final toll could be greater. Photos show ISIS lining up and shooting Iraqi cadets. Some bodies are thrown into the Tigris River, while others are deposited in mass graves. On July 9, 2015, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council in Baghdad sentences 24 suspected ISIS members to death for participation in the massacre. The suspects deny taking part in the massacre and claim Iraqi authorities had tortured them into confessing. In August 2016, Iraqi authorities hang 36 men convicted of participating in the massacre. In August 2017, an Iraqi court sentences another 27 men to death for participating in the massacre.
June 10, 2014: ISIS insurgents took over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, as Iraqi soldiers fled on foot and left behind their weapons, vehicles and uniforms. After seizing Mosul and securing its hold over Nineveh Province, the militants moved south toward Baghdad, taking over parts of Salahuddin Province along the way. Five days after its offensive, ISIS claimed that it had executed 1,700 Iraqi soldiers, many of whom were Shiites. Those claims could not be immediately verified, though the Iraqi military admitted that at least 800 soldiers had been taken prisoner. ISIS also robs local banks and seizes U.S. military equipment left for the Iraqi army.
May 2014: American citizen Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who went by the nom de guerre Abu Huraira al-Amriki, reportedly carried out a suicide truck bombing on a mountaintop restaurant in Syria that was a gathering spot for Syrian soldiers. On May 15, a car bombing carried out by ISIS near the Turkish border killed at least 43 people. The bombing was reportedly intended to target the Tawhid Brigade—part of the rebel coalition called the Islamic Front—which controlled the border crossing. Also in May, French citizen Mehdi Nemmouche, who reportedly fought in Syria with ISIS, shot and killed 3 people at a Jewish museum in Brussels. The attack was the first instance of a European Islamist fighter returning home from the war to commit acts of violence.
February 23, 2014: A suicide bomber from ISIS reportedly launched an attack against a rebel base, killing Abu Khalid al-Suri, who was chosen by Ayman al-Zawahiri to mediate disputes between Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS.
February 2014: British jihadist Abdul Waheed Majeed reportedly carried out a suicide truck bombing at the Aleppo Central Prison. If true, Majeed’s attack was the “first known case of a British suicide bomber in Syria.”
January 2014: After days of intense fighting, ISIS militants took over major parts of Fallujah, destroyed the police headquarters, and declared the city an Islamic state. ISIS was accused of carrying out mass executions against civilians, prisoners, and other rebel fighters in Aleppo, Idlib, and Raqq. According to reports, bodies were found handcuffed and blindfolded at a children’s hospital used as a base by ISIS.
December 21, 2013: 18 Iraqi soldiers, including a high-ranking commander, were killed during a raid on a training camp where ISIS was teaching recruits how to make roadside explosives.
September 12, 2013: Ayman al-Zawahiri released a message the day after the 12th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, called on his followers to carry out “a few disparate attacks” against the American homeland and to “bleed America economically.” Part of his message referred to the war in Syria, where he told jihadists not to cooperate with secular rebel forces.
August 28, 2013: A series of more than a dozen explosions hit Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad during the morning commute, killing at least 65 and wounding dozens more. The attacks followed a string of recent beheadings that were claimed by AQI.
July 26, 2013: Fighters from the Nusra Front and Ansar al-Khalafa al-Islamiya Brigade reportedly killed as many as 150 Syrian soldiers during a battle in Khan al-Assal, a suburb of Aleppo. 51 of the soldiers were summarily executed after surrendering, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
July 23, 2013: As part of its “Breaking the Walls” campaign, AQI militants staged “carefully synchronized operations” to break members of the organization out of the Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons. Al-Qaeda claimed that 500 inmates had been freed from the prisons, while Iraqi officials put the total at 800—with 400 of them recaptured or killed.
June-July 2013: ISIS escalated attacks against members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in an apparent attempt to take out the FSA’s leadership. ISIS reportedly killed “prominent” FSA commander Kamal Hamami for planning operations without consulting it. The organization also beheaded two FSA soldiers and left their heads next to a garbage can.
June 17, 2013: A suicide bomber detonated a truck, allegedly laden with 6 tons of explosives, near a Syrian military base in Aleppo, killing up to 60 soldiers.
April 8, 2013: A car bomb exploded near the Syrian Central Bank in Damascus, killing at least 15 and wounding 53.
March 11, 2013: ISI claimed responsibility for ambushing and gunning down more than 40 Syrian soldiers in Anbar Province who had temporarily travelled to Iraq for safety.
January 11, 2013: The Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham led an offensive on the Taftanaz air base in Idlib province, seizing large caches of weapons and ammunition – and also taking out the base that served as the launching point for “barrel bomb” attacks against civilians.
October 9, 2012: The Nusra Front claimed responsibility for multiple suicide attacks against an air force intelligence branch in Harasta, a suburb of Damascus. The group claimed that one suicide bomber detonated a vehicle packed with 9 tons of explosives, while another attacker drove an ambulance loaded with explosives to the scene 25 minutes later.
September 8, 2012: A suicide bomber from the Nusra Front reportedly attacked al-Haya hospital in Aleppo. The group claimed that it killed more than 200 military officers and soldiers, while the Syrian government reported that 27 soldiers died and 64 were wounded.
July 19, 2012: The Nusra Front claimed responsibility for kidnapping and executing Syria television presenter Mohamed al-Saeed. The group warned supporters of the Syrian regime that “…the swords of the mujahideen will cut off their heads and purify the Levant from their obscenity.” On the same date, the Nusra Front claimed that it conducted a suicide bombing on a security post in Ma’arat al-Nu’man, killing 60 Syrian soldiers.
June 26, 2012: The Nusra Front claimed responsibility for an attack on the private Syrian television station Alikhbaria, killing 7 people and reportedly destroying the station.
June 1, 2012: In retaliation for the Syrian government’s massacre in Houla, the Nusra Front reportedly carried out multiple attacks on Syrian military targets, including a suicide attack on the al Nayrab Camp in Idlib, as well as ambush and IED attacks on military units responding to the attack at al Nayrab.
May 19, 2012: A suicide bomber reportedly detonated a car bomb near a Syrian military post in Deir Ezzor, killing 9 people and wounding nearly 100.
May 12, 2012: Syrian security forces reportedly killed a suicide bomber who was attempting to drive a minibus packed with explosives into a densely populated neighborhood in Aleppo.
May 10, 2012: Two suicide bombers carried out car bombings that targeted “a notorious military intelligence compound” and another security building in Damascus, reportedly killing 55 and wounding 400.
April 30, 2012: Two suicide bombers reportedly detonated vehicles laden with explosives near a Syrian military compound and the Carlton Hotel in Idlib, killing at least 9 and wounding dozens.
April 24, 2012: Jabhat al-Nusra claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack on the Iranian Cultural Consulate in Damascus. According to the group, one of its security battalions attached explosives to a Syrian army vehicle and detonated them when it arrived at the consulate.
April 17, 2012: A suicide bomber detonated himself near a mosque in the Midan neighborhood of Damascus, killing at least 9 and wounding dozens.
March 17, 2012: Two powerful car bombs exploded near Syrian intelligence and security buildings in Damascus, killing more than 25 people and injuring nearly 100.
February 10, 2012: Several car bombs exploded minutes apart from each other at a military security headquarters and police compound in Aleppo, killing 28 people and wounding more than 200. The Nusra Front eventually claimed responsibility for the attack.
January 14, 2012: Militants detonated a bomb near a tent in Basra where Shiite pilgrims celebrating the holiday of Arbaeen were eating breakfast. The explosion killed at least 53 and wounded more than 130.
January 6, 2012: The Syrian government reported that a suicide bomber detonated himself in the Midan neighborhood in Damascus, killing 26 and wounding dozens. Again, the opposition accused the Syrian government of perpetrating the attacks to bolster its narrative that al-Qaeda was gaining influence among the opposition. The Nusra Front eventually claimed responsibility for the attack.
December 23, 2011: Two car bombs exploded near the State Security Directorate in Damascus, killing at least 44. Syria’s state news agency claimed that two suicide bombers affiliated with al-Qaeda were responsible for the attack, though members of the Syrian opposition accused the Assad regime of planning the attacks in order to crackdown harder on its opponents.
August 20, 2011: AQI announced that it was launching a campaign whereby it would carry out 100 attacks, calling it “the battle of revenge for Sheik Osama bin Laden and other senior leaders.”
August 15, 2011: The Islamic State of Iraq was suspected of carrying out a series of 42 “apparently coordinated” attacks using suicide bombs, car bombs, and gunmen. At least 89 people were killed and 315 wounded. The attacks targeted Iraqi policemen and soldiers, as well as a market in Kut, and a mosque in Yusufiya.
May 5, 2011: A suicide bomber detonated himself at a police training center in the majority Shiite city of Hilla, killing 25 and wounding at least 75.
November 2, 2010: Militants set off a wave of car bombs and roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that targeted Sunni and Shiite area across Baghdad, killing at least 63 and wounding about 285.
October 31, 2010: Gunmen strapped with suicide vests attacked a Catholic church in Baghdad, taking more than 100 people hostage. During the ensuing siege, at least 30 hostages were killed and 41 wounded.
May 10, 2010: A series of shooting and bombing attacks in Baghdad, Fallujah, Samarra, Tarmiya, and Suwayra, killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds.
April 23, 2010: A series of bombings struck near the headquarters belonging to Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr in Sadr City, Baghdad, killing at least 59 and wounding dozens.
January 25, 2010: Three bombs exploded within 10 minutes of each other in Baghdad during rush hour, striking the Ishtar Sheraton, Babylon Hotel, and Hamra Hotel – all popular hotels for foreign businessmen and journalists. The blasts killed 36 and wounded more than 70.
2009: As U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq amidst relatively low levels of violence at the end of 2008, car bombings and suicide attacks made a comeback in 2009. While the nature of the attacks fit the profile of AQI/ISI-style bombings, the group’s culpability was unclear. The attacks included:
October 25, 2009: ISIS claimed responsibility for two car bombings that struck the Iraqi Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works, killing more than 155 and injuring more than 500.
July 17, 2009: 3 American soldiers were killed when militants attacked an army base in Basra with mortar rounds.
April 23-24, 2009: Three separate suicide bombings in Baghdad and Muqdadiya killed at least 80 and injured 120. The attack in Baghdad was perpetrated by a woman who detonated herself among a group of women and children waiting for emergency food aid. The next day, two suicide bombings near the revered Shiite shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim and his grandson killed at least 60.
April 10, 2009: A suicide truck bomber struck the main military base in Mosul, killing 5 American soldiers and two Iraqis. It was “the deadliest attack against American soldiers [in Iraq] in 13 months…”
April 6, 2009: Six car bombs detonated in Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, killing at least 33 and wounding dozens.
February 9, 2009: Four American soldiers were killed in Mosul when a suicide bomber detonated his vehicle near the soldiers’ Humvee. The attack was the “deadliest single loss in nine months” for U.S. forces in Iraq.
January 2, 2009: A suicide bomber detonated himself during a meeting of nearly 1,000 tribal leaders in Yusufiya, killing at least 24 and wounding about 40.
2007: ISI continued its deadly bombing campaign, targeting predominantly Shiite populations. In January 2007, the U.S. began deploying an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq, completing the deployment in June that year and bringing the total number of troops in Iraq to 150,000.
August 16, 2007: Suicide bombers simultaneously detonated five fuel trucks in the Yazidi Kurdish villages of al-Qataniyah and al-Adnaniyah, killing more than 300 Iraqis, injuring several hundred, and destroying dozens of homes. It was reportedly the worst terrorist attack in Iraq during the post-Saddam Hussein era.
July 7, 2007: A suicide bomber detonated a truck carrying 4.5 tons of explosives in the Shiite Turkmen village of Amerli, killing as many as 150 people.
June 19, 2007: A truck bomb exploded outside the Shiite Khulani mosque in Baghdad, killing more than 80 people.
April 18, 2007: Five separate bombs, including 4 car bombs, targeted Shiite areas in Baghdad, killing more than 170. One of the bombs struck at a central bus station for Shiites travelling to Sadr City.
March 6, 2007: Two suicide bombers detonated themselves among Shiite pilgrims in Hillah, killing 93.
February 3, 2007: A suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb in a heavily Shiite populated neighborhood of Iraq, killing 135 in what was then the “deadliest single bombing” since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003.
January 22, 2007: A suicide bomber and car bomb targeted a Shiite market in central Baghdad, killing 88.
November 23, 2006: Car bombs and mortar attacks in Sadr City killed 215, setting of more sectarian violence.
February 22, 2006: Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) bombed the Shiite Al Askari Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, one of the four major Shiite shrines in Iraq and the burial place for two of the 12 revered Shiite Imams. Reportedly, “a group of men dressed like Iraqi police commandos” walked into the shrine and set off the explosions. The mosque attack set off a wave of intensified Shiite-Sunni attacks across Iraq.
2005: Al-Qaeda in Iraq increased the frequency of attacks throughout the year, targeting Coalition forces and Iraqi Shiites. In late 2005, during operations in Iraq, U.S. forces confiscated a letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri that described the organization’s long-term global strategy. The letter also criticized al-Zarqawi for videotaping and distributing footage of beheadings, saying that such violence could alienate the Islamic world from al-Qaeda’s cause. Major attacks conducted by AQI that year included:
November 9: Coordinated suicide bombings at three hotels in Amman, Jordan killed 58 and injured more than 90.
September 29: Three suicide bombers detonated car bombs at a market and busy streets in the town of Balad, killing at least 102.
September 14: A suicide bomber attacked a group of laborers in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, killing 112.
July 29: A suicide bombing on Iraqi army recruits in Rabia killed 52 and injured 57.
July 16: A suicide bomber attacked a fuel truck in Musayyib, killing at least 98 and wounding at least 80.
July 2: Egypt’s envoy to Iraq, Ihab al-Sherif, was kidnapped and later executed
April 29: Numerous suicide bombings across Iraq killed as many as 50 people
February 28: A suicide bombing in Hilla reportedly targeted Shiite police and National Guard recruits, killing 125 and wounding hundreds.
May 2004: In May, Zarqawi “inaugurated his notorious wave of hostage beheadings,” making American citizen Nicholas Berg his first victim. Later that month, a suicide bomber with suspected ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi detonated himself near the U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Baghdad, killing the acting president of the Iraqi Governing Council, Ezzedine Salim. Salim’s death came 45 days before the occupation forces were set to transfer limited political control back to the Iraqis.
August 2003: Zarqawi was allegedly responsible for the car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad on August 7, which killed at least 10 and wounded about 40. Two weeks later, Zarqawi was reportedly behind the truck bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, which killed 17—including the UN representative – and injured 100. Finally, on August 29, Zarqawi was behind the car bombing outside of the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq—one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims—that killed revered cleric Ayatollah Mohamad Bakr al-Hakim and 100 others.
1993: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Mohamed al-Maqdisi returned to Jordan, and began plotting against the Hashemite monarchy. There, Zarqawi established an organization named Bayat al-Imam (Allegiance to the Imam). The first mission that Zarqawi directed—against a movie theater in Zarqa that was showing pornographic films—failed when the bomber “forgot about his bomb. It exploded and blew off his legs.”
Designations
Associations
Media Coverage
RhetoricDesignations by the U.S. Government:
October 15, 2004 : The State Department designates Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Blocks all property in U.S. or under possession of control of U.S. persons; bans any property-related transactions by U.S. persons or within U.S., including giving or receiving contributions to the entity.
December 17, 2004: The State Department designates Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant a Foreign Terrorist Organization and freezes of assets in U.S. financial institutions, bans admission of members to U.S., and bans providing “material support or resources” to entity.
October 4, 2011: The State Department designates Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, AKA Abu Du’a [AKA Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi] a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and blocks all property in U.S. or under possession of control of U.S. persons and bans any property-related transactions by U.S. persons or within U.S., including giving or receiving contributions to the entity.
December 11, 2012: The State Department designates the Nusra Front Specially Designated Global Terrorists and Blocks all property in U.S. or under possession of control of U.S. persons; bans any property-related transactions by U.S. persons or within U.S., including giving or receiving contributions to the entity.
May 14, 2014: The State Department designates The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), ad-Dawla al-Islamiyya fi al-‘Iraq wa-sh-Sham, Daesh, Dawla al Islamiya, and Al-Furqan Establishment for Media Production (as aliases for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
May 14, 2014: The Department of the Treasury designates Abd Al-Rahman Muhammad Zafir Al-Dubaysi Al-Juhni (Al-Juhni) and 'Abd Al-Rahman Mustafa Al-Qaduli (Al-Qaduli) Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
August 6, 2014: The Department of the Treasury designates ‘Abd al-Rahman Khalaf ‘Ubayd Juday’ al-‘Anizi a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
August 18, 2014: The State Department designates Abu Mohammed al-Adnani a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
January 14, 2016: The State Department designates ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K)—ISIS’s affiliate in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region—as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
May 19, 2016: The State Department designates ISIS’s Libya branch as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The State Department simultaneously designates ISIS’s Libya branch—alongside ISIS’s Yemen and Saudi Arabia branches—as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) pursuant to Executive Order 13224.
May 16, 2018: The State Department designates ISIS in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The State Department simultaneously designates ISGS’s leader, Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahwari as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) pursuant to Executive Order 13224.
September 10, 2019: The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amends Executive Order 13224, resulting in secondary sanctions for all Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). The sanctions also designate Marwan Mahdi Salah Al-Rawi, the Saksouk Company for Exchange and Money Transfer (Saksouk), Al Haram Foreign Exchange Co. Ltd., Al-Khalidi Exchange, Al-Hebo Jewelry Company, Muhamad Ali al-Hebo, Mohamad Ameen, Almaida Marani Salvin, to be targeted as ISIS financial facilitators. OFAC also designates Muhammad Ali Sayid Ahmad for his participation in training related to terrorism that was provided by ISIS.
March 10, 2021: The State Department designates the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – Mozambique (ISIS-Mozambique) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The State Department also designates ISIS-DRC and ISIS-Mozambique as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Executive Order 13224. The State Department further designates the respective leaders of ISIS-DRC and ISIS-Mozambique, Seka Musa Baluku and Abu Yasir Hassan, as SDGTs.
June 8, 2023: The U.S. Department of State designates Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rufay’i and Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Mainuki as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Rufay’i is the emir of the Bilad al-Rafidayn Office, ISIS’s Iraq division. Al-Mainuki is a Sahel-based senior leader of ISIS’s al-Furqan Office, ISIS’s regional division in Nigeria and the Sahel.
July 21, 2023: The U.S. Department of the Treasury designates 38 members and entities belonging to ISIS in the Maldives as specially designated nationals. Among the members designated are financial facilitators, operatives, and senior leaders who have been in direct communication with ISIS-K and have also provided financial support to Maldivian ISIS fighters in Syria.
November 22, 2021: The Designations by Foreign Governments and Organizations:
Australia—listed ISIS as a terrorist organization on March 2, 2005.
Canada—listed ISIS as a terrorist organization on August 20, 2012.
Canada—listed Islamic State in Sinai Province as a terrorist organization on April 7, 2015.
Canada—listed Islamic State – Khorasan Province as a terrorist organization on March 23, 2018.
Canada—listed Islamic State – Bangladesh as a terrorist organization on February 3, 2021.
Canada—listed Islamic State East Asia as a terrorist organization on February 3, 2021.
Canada—listed Islamic State in the Greater Sahara as a terrorist organization on February 3, 2021.
Canada—listed Islamic State in Libya as a terrorist organization on February 3, 2021.
Canada—listed Islamic State West Africa Province as a terrorist organization on February 3, 2021.
Canada—listed Islamic State – Democratic Republic of the Congo as a terrorist organization on June 25, 2021.
Indonesia—listed ISIS as a terrorist organization on August 2, 2014.
Saudi Arabia—listed ISIS as a terrorist organization on March 7, 2014.
Israel—Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, Djamel Moustafa, Ismail Abdallah, and Mubarak Mushakhas Sanad Mubarak al-Bathali declared Individual under Article 2 of the Prohibition of Financing Terrorism on January 18, 2004.
Israel—Hamid Abdallah Ahmad al-Ali and Aschraf al-Dagma declared Individual under Article 2 of the Prohibition of Financing Terrorism on October 18, 2004.
Israel—listed ISIS as an unauthorized organization on September 3, 2014.
United Kingdom—listed Al-Qaida in Iraq as an Asset Freeze Target on October 18, 2004.
United Kingdom—listed Muthanna Harith al-Dari as an Asset Freeze Target on April 7, 2010.
United Kingdom—listed Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai as an Asset Freeze Target on October 17, 2011.
United Kingdom—listed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as an Proscribed Terrorist Organization on June, 2014.
United Kingdom—listed Abou Mohamed al Adnani and Hamid al-‘Ali as Asset Freeze Targets on August 15, 2014.
United Nations—Al-Qaida in Iraq Listed under category “Entities and other groups and undertakings associated with Al Qaida” on October 18, 2004.
United Nations—Muthanna Harith al-Dari listed as individual associated with Al-Qaida on March 25, 2010.
United Nations—Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai (Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi) listed as an individual associated with Al-Qaida on October 5, 2011.
United Nations—Abou Mohamed al Adnani and Abou Mohamed al Adnani listed as individuals associated with Al-Qaida on August 15, 2014.
United Nations—Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Khorasan (ISIL - K) added to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List on May 14, 2019.
United Nations— Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) added to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List on February 23, 2020.
United Nations—Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) added to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List on February 23, 2020.
United Nations— Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - Libya added to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List on February 23, 2020.
United Nations—Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Yemen added to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List on March 4, 2020.