The rise and fall of ISIS! Where is it today?
Rise of ISIS (2003–2014)
- ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) emerged after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which dismantled Saddam Hussein’s military and created chaos.
- Former Ba’athist officers and jihadists formed al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) under Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. After the Syrian Civil War erupted in 2011, the group expanded across Syria and Iraq, rebranding itself as ISIS.
- Exploiting sectarian tensions, weak governments, and ungoverned territories, ISIS captured major cities—including Mosul in 2014—and declared a global “caliphate” under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
- At its peak, it controlled territory the size of Britain, earning billions from oil smuggling, taxation, kidnapping, and extortion. Its brutal propaganda, mass executions, and global recruitment made it the world’s most powerful terrorist group.
Fall of ISIS (2015–2019)
- A U.S.-led international coalition, Kurdish forces (SDF), Iraqi Army, and several regional actors launched massive military campaigns against ISIS.
- From 2015 onward, ISIS rapidly lost territory: Ramadi, Fallujah, Mosul (2017), Raqqa (2017)—their main strongholds—fell after intense battles.
- By March 2019, the last physical territory of ISIS in Baghouz, Syria, collapsed, ending its self-declared caliphate. Key leaders, including al-Baghdadi (killed in 2019), were either eliminated or captured. Loss of revenue, defections, and continuous airstrikes crippled its command structure.
What ISIS Is Today (Post-2019)?
ISIS no longer controls territory but survives as an underground insurgency in:
- Iraq–Syria desert regions
- Afghanistan (ISIS-K)
- Africa (Nigeria, Mozambique, Congo)
- South Asia and online radical networks
- It conducts sporadic attacks, recruits online, and uses propaganda, but it is a fragmented, weakened version of its former self.