ISIS Conflict

The ISIS conflict refers to the multi-front war fought against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (also known as ISIL, Daesh, or IS) following the group's rapid territorial expansion across Iraq and Syria in 2014. ISIS emerged from the remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, exploited the Syrian civil war, and on 29 June 2014 its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a "caliphate" from the Grand al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul.

At its territorial peak in late 2014, ISIS controlled an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom, including Mosul, Raqqa, Fallujah, and Palmyra, governing several million people and generating revenue through oil smuggling, taxation, and antiquities trafficking. The group conducted mass atrocities, including the genocide against the Yazidis in Sinjar in August 2014, recognized as such by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria and by parliaments including the US Congress and the UK House of Commons.

The military response involved several overlapping coalitions:

• The Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, launched in September 2014 and led by the United States, eventually grew to more than 80 members and conducted Operation Inherent Resolve.
• The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led ground force backed by US airpower, drove ISIS from Raqqa in October 2017.
• Iraqi Security Forces and Popular Mobilization Units, supported by coalition airstrikes and Iranian advisors, retook Mosul in July 2017.
• Russia and Iran intervened in support of the Assad government, with separate but sometimes parallel operations against ISIS.

The territorial caliphate was declared defeated at Baghouz in March 2019. Al-Baghdadi was killed in a US raid in Idlib in October 2019. ISIS persists as an insurgency in Iraq and Syria and through affiliates such as ISIS-Khorasan in Afghanistan, which claimed the August 2021 Kabul airport bombing.