Ten years ago, the terrorist group known as ISIS stunned the world when it seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared its own caliphate.
By the time territory from that self-proclaimed caliphate was fully retaken in 2019, ISIS had terrorized civilian populations in Iraq and Syria, carried out a genocidal campaign against the Yazidi religious minority, broadcast the beheadings of journalists and aid workers, and staged deadly terror attacks in Paris, Nice, Brussels, Manchester, Turkey and beyond.
“This is one of the first terrorist groups saying, ‘You know what? We’re not going to hit and run, and we’re never going to participate in politics as you know it. We actually want to kill everyone who disagrees with us,’” counterterrorism expert Ali Soufan told FRONTLINE in 2014’s The Rise of ISIS.
In that documentary and 17 others collected below, FRONTLINE has covered how the group that would evolve into ISIS gained strength in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, how it exploited the conflict in Syria, and how the long and costly U.S.-led fight against the group, with a civilian toll of its own, has played out in the Middle East and across the world.
FRONTLINE’s documentaries and related reporting have also examined the continuing evolution of the ISIS threat, including how the group has solidified a foothold in Afghanistan. U.S. officials believe ISIS-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, an affiliate of the self-declared Islamic State that emerged in Afghanistan, was behind the suburban Moscow concert hall assault in March that killed more than 130 people and was the deadliest terror attack inside Russia in 20 years.
A decade after ISIS seized power, explore our reporting on the group, the fight against it, the civilian toll and the lasting ramifications below.
How ISIS Came to Be & the U.S. Role in the Region
Losing Iraq (2014)
As ISIS burst onto the world stage and seized cities and towns in Iraq and Syria, filmmakers Michael Kirk, Jim Gilmore and Mike Wiser traced how the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, its aftermath and the decisions of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama contributed to the groundwork for the terrorist group’s evolution and ascent — first as Al Qaeda in Iraq, and then as ISIS. The documentary chronicled the U.S.’s role in Iraq from the invasion to the bloody emergence of a terror group that, as former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told FRONTLINE, made “[Osama] bin Laden’s Al Qaeda look like Boy Scouts.”
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The Rise of ISIS (2014)
From filmmakers Martin Smith and Linda Hirsch, this documentary laid out the unheeded warnings, failures and missed opportunities that allowed a decimated Al Qaeda in Iraq to evolve and expand into ISIS. Reporting from Iraq as U.S. airstrikes against ISIS began, Smith offered a revelatory look at how ISIS grew in Iraq, how it gained strength in Syria, and how it developed and funded its brutal strategy.
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The Secret History of ISIS (2016)
How was ISIS’s founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, once a small-time criminal, able to build a brutal terrorist organization that would destabilize the Middle East and inflict violence around the world? This film showed how, in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Zarqawi developed what would become the foundation for ISIS’s playbook of fomenting sectarian violence among Muslims, stepping in to take advantage of power vacuums, and broadcasting brutality far and wide on the internet. From filmmakers Michael Kirk, Mike Wiser and Jim Gilmore, the film also explored how Zarqawi’s successor, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, followed Zarqawi’s method to make ISIS an even more powerful threat.
U.S. Policy & the Fight Against ISIS
Obama at War (2015)
Martin Smith examined the Obama administration’s struggle to deal with the deadly war in Syria, then in its fifth year — and explored how the accompanying rise of ISIS heightened the stakes. The documentary also examined how the spiraling humanitarian catastrophe under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad allowed ISIS to flourish.
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Confronting ISIS (2016)
An on-the-ground investigation of the complexities of the U.S.-led fight against ISIS, this documentary from filmmakers Martin Smith and Linda Hirsch delved into the conditions that allowed ISIS to rise, and the role of powerful, Iran-backed Shia militias in Iraq that were accused of abusing civilians while fighting ISIS. Smith traveled to five countries with key roles in the anti-ISIS fight — Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Turkey — to report on successes, failures and challenges as ISIS lost ground in the region, but lashed out with attacks abroad.
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America After 9/11 (2021)
From filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team, this two-hour documentary special explored how the 9/11 attacks ushered in an era of fear, mistrust and division in the U.S. — and examined the legacy and aftermath of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the rise of ISIS.
On the Ground in Iraq & Syria
Syria’s Second Front (2014)
This groundbreaking February 2014 FRONTLINE report documented ISIS’s presence in Syria months before the group became an international talking point. Correspondent Muhammad Ali found that three years into Syria’s civil war, rebel forces weren’t just fighting Assad’s regime. They were also vying for control against a brutal group that was then little-known: ISIS. Ali, a Syrian native, filmed rebels as they tried to unify against ISIS and embarked on a battle to take back an ISIS-controlled town. The documentary was produced by Jamie Doran and James Jones.
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Escaping ISIS (2015)
Using undercover footage, this documentary presented firsthand accounts of women from the Yazidi religious minority who were abducted and enslaved by ISIS and who escaped its brutal reign. “Some nights I can’t sleep until the early morning hours because of the nightmares,” Aeida, a 21-year-old Yazidi woman who was abducted by ISIS with her two young children, said in the documentary. Filmmakers Edward Watts and Evan Williams also followed an underground network that helped the women escape.
Read More: Where Are the Yazidis Today, Almost a Decade After ISIS’s Genocidal Campaign?
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Battle for Iraq (2017)
Described at the time by some military commanders as the deadliest urban combat since World War II, the battle to drive ISIS out of Mosul, Iraq, was brutal and grueling. Reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reported from the frontlines of the fight.
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Mosul (2017)
Shot during the months-long battle to retake Mosul, this film from Olivier Sarbil, James Jones and Dan Edge followed four young soldiers on an Iraqi special forces squad, trained for intense urban warfare, as they dealt with the fight and the fallout. “I have these dreams,” then-staff sergeant Jamal al-Zain told FRONTLINE. “My family tells me that I shout, ‘ISIS, ISIS! Shoot him.’ When everyone is sleeping and I’m awake, I break down and cry.”
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Iraq Uncovered (2017)
Shia militias played a crucial role in Iraq’s fight against ISIS. But correspondent Ramita Navai found that some of the Iranian-backed Shia forces battling ISIS had themselves been accused of atrocities, including kidnapping, imprisoning, torturing and killing ordinary Sunni civilians whom the militias saw as ISIS suspects. “On my journey through Iraq, I’ve seen ISIS losing ground, but it’s come at a cost,” Navai said in the film. “Mistrust between Sunnis and Shias seems greater than ever. The challenge for Iraq now will be preventing this from starting yet another war.”
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Once Upon a Time in Iraq (2020)
From director James Bluemel, this film documented the story of the Iraq War, as told by Iraqis who lived through it. They shared their personal accounts and lasting memories of life under Saddam Hussein, the U.S.-led invasion of their country and the years of chaos that followed — from the sectarian violence to the rise and brutal reign of ISIS. “Everybody was terrified that ISIS would enter Baghdad at any time. They were close to the borders, only one hour away from us,” a young woman named Sally Mars said in the film. “They understood how to attack us mentally before they attacked us with weapons. They made us fear them.”
ISIS’s Impact Outside Iraq & Syria
ISIS in Afghanistan (2015)
Correspondent Najibullah Quraishi revealed on film the degree to which ISIS had gained a foothold in Afghanistan, and how the group was focusing its efforts on training a new generation of jihadists. “They’re completely different than the Taliban,” Quraishi said of ISIS in the documentary. “They are not after one country or one place or one district. Their aim is to have their groups, to have their networks all over the world.”
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Terror in Europe (2016)
Following a wave of deadly terror incidents, including ISIS-claimed attacks in Paris and Brussels that killed more than 170 people, FRONTLINE and ProPublica went inside Europe’s fight against terrorism. Correspondent Sebastian Rotella sat down with officials tasked with carrying out the fight against ISIS and Al Qaeda and examined missteps and systemic breakdowns that allowed known terrorists to launch an attack in the heart of Europe.
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Exodus (2016) & Exodus: The Journey Continues (2018)
These documentaries told the first-person stories of refugees and migrants fleeing war, persecution and hardship — including violence wrought by ISIS and the conflicts in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. “Our future has gone,” Saed, an Iraqi man who was living in a refugee camp after fleeing ISIS, told FRONTLINE in Exodus: The Journey Continues. Saed, whose brother had worked as a translator for the U.S. Army, said, “My only hope now is to leave this land, to be able to get to America.”
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Taliban Country (2020)
Nearly 20 years after the U.S. drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, and as then-President Donald Trump said he wanted to end the war, reporter Najibullah Quraishi went on a dangerous journey inside both Taliban- and ISIS-held territory in Afghanistan. With filmmakers Karim Shah, Dan Edge and Monica Garnsey, Quraishi exposed the harsh reality that not only was the Taliban once again wielding power, but ISIS’s threat was also looming large.
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Taliban Takeover (2021)
Filmed on the ground in Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal under President Joe Biden, this documentary revealed how the Taliban takeover had transformed daily life in Afghanistan. Najibullah Quraishi also investigated how the Taliban’s rise to power in Afghanistan was intensifying the threat from Al Qaeda and ISIS both within the country and beyond. A longtime source told Quraishi that ISIS “is a very serious danger, not just for Afghanistan but for the whole world.”