The Rise of ISIS

From AQI to ISIS

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) evolved from al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after the 2003 US invasion. Zarqawi's strategy of stoking sectarian war between Sunnis and Shias was so extreme that even al-Qaeda's leadership criticized it.

After Zarqawi was killed in a 2006 US airstrike, the group rebranded as the Islamic State of Iraq. It was nearly destroyed by the US troop surge and the Sunni Awakening movement (2007-2008), in which tribal leaders turned against the jihadists. But the group survived in the shadows.

Two factors revived it: the Syrian civil war after 2011 provided new territory and recruits, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's sectarian policies alienated Sunnis, creating space for the group to re-emerge as a supposed protector of Sunni interests. Under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group expanded into Syria, captured Raqqa, and in June 2014 seized Mosul — Iraq's second-largest city — with a force far smaller than the Iraqi army garrison defending it.

Defeat and Legacy

A US-led coalition of over 80 countries launched airstrikes beginning in August 2014. On the ground, Iraqi Security Forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, Iranian-backed Shia militias, and Syrian Democratic Forces (predominantly Kurdish YPG) bore the brunt of fighting. Mosul was recaptured in July 2017 after a devastating nine-month battle. Raqqa fell in October 2017. Baghdadi was killed in a US raid in October 2019.

But ISIS's legacy endures. Its affiliates operate across Africa (Sahel, Mozambique, Egypt's Sinai), South and Southeast Asia. It inspired lone-wolf attacks in Paris, Brussels, Nice, Orlando, and dozens of other cities. And the conditions that produced it — sectarian governance, state collapse, marginalized Sunni communities — have not been fully addressed.