I will post information about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria also known as ISIS from Wikipedia and a video link from Vice News.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام (Arabic) ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām Participant in the Syrian Civil War, Iraq War (2003–2011), Iraqi insurgency, Iraq War (2014–present), Second Libyan Civil War, Boko Haram insurgency, War in North-West Pakistan, War in Afghanistan, Yemeni Civil War, and other conflicts Primary target of the Global War on Terrorism and of the Military intervention against ISIL: in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Nigeria. | ||||
Motto: باقية وتتمدد Bāqiyah wa-Tatamaddad "Remaining and Expanding" | ||||
Anthem: أمتي قد لاح فجر Ummatī, qad lāḥa fajrun "My Nation, A Dawn Has Appeared" | ||||
Administrative center | ||||
Largest city | ||||
Ideology | ||||
Type | ||||
Military strength & operation areas | Inside Syria and Iraq 200,000 (Kurdish claim) 20,000–31,000 (CIA estimate) Outside Syria and Iraq 32,600–57,900 (See Military of ISIL for more-detailed estimates.) Estimated total 52,600–257,900 | |||
Leaders | ||||
- | Leader | |||
- | Deputy leader | |||
- | Deputy leader in Syria | |||
- | Deputy leader in Iraq | |||
- | Military chief | |||
- | Governor of South & Central Euphrates | |||
- | Chief spokesperson | |||
- | Chief of Syrian military operations | |||
Establishment | ||||
- | Formation (as Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād) | 1999 | ||
- | Joined al-Qaeda | October 2004 | ||
- | Declaration of an Islamic state in Iraq | 13 October 2006 | ||
- | Claim of territory in the Levant | 8 April 2013 | ||
- | Separated from al-Qaeda | 3 February 2014 | ||
- | Declaration of caliphate | 29 June 2014 | ||
- | Claim of territory in Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Pakistan | 13 November 2014 | ||
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ˈaɪsəl/; Arabic: الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS/ˈaɪsɪs/), or simply as the Islamic State, is a Salafi jihadi militant group and self-proclaimed caliphate and Islamic state that as of March 2015 has control over territory occupied by ten million people in Iraqand Syria, as well as limited territorial control in Libya and Nigeria. The group also operates or has affiliates in other parts of the world including southeast Asia.
The group is known in Arabic as ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah fī 'l-ʿIrāq wa-sh-Shām, leading to the acronym Da'ish, Da'eesh, or DAESH (داعش, Arabic pronunciation: [ˈdaːʕiʃ]), the Arabic equivalent of "ISIL". On 29 June 2014, the group proclaimed itself to be a worldwide caliphate, with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi being named its caliph, and renamed itself "Islamic State" (الدولة الإسلامية, ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah). The new name and the idea of a caliphate has been widely criticised and condemned, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups all refusing to acknowledge it. As caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide and that "the legality of all emirates, groups, states, and organisations, becomes null by the expansion of the khilāfah's [caliphate's] authority and arrival of its troops to their areas". Many Islamic and non-Islamic communities judge the group to be unrepresentative of Islam.
The United Nations has held ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has reported ethnic cleansing by the group on a "historic scale". The group has been designatedas a terrorist organisation by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Egypt, and Russia. Over 60 countries are directly or indirectly waging war against ISIL.
The group originated as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004. The group participated in the Iraqi insurgency, which had followed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces. In January 2006, it joined other Sunni insurgent groups to form the Mujahideen Shura Council, which proclaimed the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) in October 2006.
Under the leadership of al-Baghdadi, the ISI sent delegates into Syria in August 2011 after the Syrian Civil Warbegan in March 2011. This group named itself Jabhat an-Nuṣrah li-Ahli ash-Shām or al-Nusra Front, and established a large presence in Sunni-majority areas of Syria, within the governorates of Ar-Raqqah, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, and Aleppo.
In April 2013, al-Baghdadi announced the merger of his ISI with al-Nusra Front, and announced that the name of the reunited group was now the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). However, both Abu Mohammad al-Julani and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leaders of al-Nusra and al-Qaeda respectively, rejected the merger. After an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIL on 3 February 2014, citing its failure to consult and "notorious intransigence".
ISIL is known for its well-funded web and social media propaganda, which includes Internet videos of beheadings of soldiers, civilians, journalists and aid workers, as well as the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage sites.
The group gained prominence after it drove Iraqi government forces out of key western cities in Iraq. In Syria, it conducted ground attacks against both government forces and rebel factions in the Syrian Civil War. It gained those territories after an offensive, initiated in early 2014, which senior US military commanders and members of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs saw as a re-emergence of Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda militants. Iraq's territorial loss almost caused a collapse of the Iraqi government and prompted renewal of US military action in Iraq.
 |
Fighters of ISIS [PHOTO SOURCE: http://muslimmirror.com/eng/dont-blame-islam-al-qaeda-and-isis-are-products-of-us-and-saudi-imperialism/ ] |
The Islamic State (Full Length)
Published on Aug 14, 2014
EXCLUSIVE: VICE News Meets Barack Obama: http://bit.ly/1wT03Bi
The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced its intention to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.
The lightning advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June shocked the world. But it's not just the group's military victories that have garnered attention — it's also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state.
Flush with cash and US weapons seized during its advances in Iraq, the Islamic State's expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq, encroaching on Kurdish territory and sending Christians and other minorities fleeing as reports of massacres emerged.
VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings.
Click to watch "Ghosts of Aleppo (Part 1)" - http://bit.ly/Ghosts-of-Aleppo
Check out the VICE News beta for more: http://vicenews.com
Follow VICE News here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews
Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews
The Islamic State, a hardline Sunni jihadist group that formerly had ties to al Qaeda, has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the group has announced its intention to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.
The lightning advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June shocked the world. But it's not just the group's military victories that have garnered attention — it's also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state.
Flush with cash and US weapons seized during its advances in Iraq, the Islamic State's expansion shows no sign of slowing down. In the first week of August alone, Islamic State fighters have taken over new areas in northern Iraq, encroaching on Kurdish territory and sending Christians and other minorities fleeing as reports of massacres emerged.
VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings.
Click to watch "Ghosts of Aleppo (Part 1)" - http://bit.ly/Ghosts-of-Aleppo
Check out the VICE News beta for more: http://vicenews.com
Follow VICE News here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vicenews
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vicenews
Tumblr: http://vicenews.tumblr.com/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/vicenews
VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUjHb4C7b94