Defeat-Daesh Campaign

The Defeat-Daesh campaign refers to the coordinated international effort to dismantle the so-called Islamic State (also called ISIS, ISIL, or by the Arabic acronym Daesh) after the group seized large portions of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The campaign is conducted under the umbrella of the Global Coalition against Daesh, formed in September 2014 at a meeting convened by the United States on the margins of the NATO Wales Summit. The coalition grew to include dozens of states and organisations, with the European Union, the Arab League, NATO, and Interpol among its institutional members.

The campaign has operated along several parallel lines of effort:

• Military operations, including US-led airstrikes under Operation Inherent Resolve (launched October 2014), support to Iraqi Security Forces, and partnership with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
• Counter-financing, coordinated in part through the Counter ISIL Finance Group, targeting oil smuggling, antiquities trafficking, and informal value transfer.
• Counter-messaging and stabilisation, aimed at undermining Daesh propaganda and restoring basic services in liberated areas such as Mosul and Raqqa.
• Foreign Terrorist Fighter (FTF) tracking, supported by UN Security Council Resolution 2178 (2014) and Resolution 2396 (2017), which obliged member states to share passenger data and prosecute returnees.

Major territorial milestones included the recapture of Mosul in July 2017 by Iraqi forces and the fall of Raqqa, Daesh's self-declared capital, in October 2017 to the SDF. In March 2019 the SDF declared the elimination of the group's last territorial holding at Baghouz. The campaign then shifted toward counter-insurgency, detention of suspected fighters and their families (notably at al-Hol camp), and prevention of a Daesh resurgence in both Iraq/Syria and affiliate provinces in West Africa, the Sahel, and Afghanistan (ISIS-Khorasan).