cross-referenced news and research resources about
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (sometimes translated "Syria" instead of "Levant"), abbreviated as ISIL or ISIS, is an active militant group in Iraq and Syria. In its unrecognized self-proclaimed status as an independent state it claims the territory of Iraq and Syria, with implied future claims intended over more of the Levant (e.g. Lebanon). It was established in the early years of the Iraq War and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004. The group was composed of and supported by a variety of insurgent groups, including its predecessor organisation, the Mujahideen Shura Council, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, etc., and other clans whose population profess Sunni Islam. It aimed to establish a caliphate in the Sunni majority regions of Iraq, later expanding this to include Syria. In February 2014, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties to ISIL.
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updated Fri. March 15, 2024
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NDTV
April 28, 2018
ISIS' Amaq News Agency released a video on Friday showing what they said was ISIS terrorists shooting "two advocators" for next month's Iraqi ... ISIS said earlier this week that it would attack polling stations in Iraq during parliamentary elections next month and that anyone who participated in the voteÃâà...
Middle East Monitor
April 28, 2018
Directorate of Streets and Bridges in the northern Iraqi governorate of Nineveh yesterday inaugurated two bridges in the western part of Mosul. “The engineering and technical experts completed the reconstruction of the Bridges of Al-Shehada and Al-Harmat, reopening both,” officials announced. The IraqiÃâà...
NBC4 Washington
April 27, 2018
The U.S.-led coalition is about to accelerate its fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday. The battle slowed in recent months after Syrian Kurdish fighters, who have been the main American proxy in eastern Syria, switched their attention to fightingÃâà...
New York Times
April 27, 2018
In 2014, ISIS swept into parts of northern Iraq where the ethnically Kurdish Yazidi people have lived alongside the Muslim majority for centuries. ... Using his extensive contacts and knowledge of roads throughout Iraq and Syria, he organizes a “hive” of smugglers of both sexes to engineer cunning rescueÃâà...
Department of Defense
April 27, 2018
On April 24, coalition military forces conducted five strikes consisting of six engagements against ISIS targets. Near Abu Kamal, four strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit, destroying three ISIS fighting positions and an ISIS vehicle and damaging a fighting position. Near Shadaddi, a strike engaged an ISISÃâà...
Business Insider
April 26, 2018
Ryan Dillon, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. "Whether they or not they call themselves a different name, they still have ISIS elements and they are still targets for the coalition and for the Iraqi security forces," Dillon said during a Tuesday news conference. "I know that theÃâà...
Human Rights Watch
April 26, 2018
Human Rights Watch has interviewed hundreds of other families of ISIS suspects across Iraq who faced similar punishments after ISIS fighters fled. “The Ba'aj decree is one of the clearest pieces of evidence to date that Iraqi authorities are collectively punishing relatives of ISIS suspects,” said Lama Fakih,Ãâà...
Telegraph.co.uk
April 26, 2018
A British man who was killed fighting Isis in Syria had been due to leave the war-torn region just two hours later, an inquest heard today. Jac Holmes, 24, had spent four months engaged in heavy fighting in Raqqa and had told his mother he was ready to leave for "rest and recuperation". But as he attemptedÃâà...
Newsweek
April 25, 2018
Iraq has stepped up its involvement in the battle against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and the hunt for its elusive leader by teaming up with neighboring Syria, a move that could potentially see the U.S. working with its rivalsRussia and Iran. Iraq sent F-16s to launch a surprise attack on a suspectedÃâà...
PBS NewsHour
April 24, 2018
Female-led households with perceived ties to ISIS in Iraq have been denied access to health care, food and non-food items, by camp administrators, .... Hassan said the group will continue to operate underground in Iraq and Syria, focusing on insurgency tactics, suicide attacks, and targeting notable peopleÃâà...
New York Times
April 24, 2018
Without them, the remaining, less capable Syrian Arab militia have struggled to contain the few hundred fighters left in two main areas: Hajin, along the Euphrates River north of Abu Kamal; and Dashisha, east of Deir al-Zour, along the Syria-Iraq border. “That is where ISIS in eastern Syria is concentratedÃâà...
CNN (blog)
April 24, 2018
CNN's coverage of the fall of ISIS in Iraq and Syria has won a Peabody Award in the News category, it was announced today by the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors. Combining dramatic reports from multiple CNN correspondents across key datelines with exclusive drone footage and other types ofÃâà...
Newsweek
April 24, 2018
Since controlling about half of Iraq and Syria at its height in 2014, ISIS has lost about 90 percent of its territory to a pro-Syrian government campaign, backed by Russia and Iran, and the U.S.-led coalition, which supported the Syrian Democratic Forces. The jihadis have lost nearly all their land in Iraq andÃâà...
New York Times
April 23, 2018
In 2014, after seizing territory the size of Britain in Iraq and Syria, ISIS aggressively carried out attacks on enemies in the region, even while laying the groundwork for successive attacks overseas. For much of the three years that it held onto a vast territory, ISIS appeared intent on fighting on all fronts, withÃâà...
Middle East Monitor
April 23, 2018
Iraqi security forces are more likely to rely on air forces to strike Daesh in Syria than to carry out ground operations in the country, an official from the Popular Mobilisation Forces said. “The Popular Mobilisation Forces are ready to enter Syria and fight the terrorist organisation there,” the group's spokesman,Ãâà...
Express.co.uk
April 23, 2018
"I was badly treated in Germany because I wore the niqab," said Linda in an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper in northern Syria. “That's why I went to Isis. I wanted to live my faith in peace together with my family." A high school graduate from Munich, Linda converted from Christianity to Islam whenÃâà...
NBCNews.com
April 18, 2018
The Islamic State, or ISIS, is a militant organization that emerged as an offshoot of al Qaeda in 2014. It quickly took control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, raising its black flag in victory and declaring the creation of a caliphate and imposing strict Islamic rule.
AMN Al-Masdar News
April 14, 2018
BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:20 A.M.) – The Islamic State (ISIS) took advantage of the U.S. Coalition's latest attack to launch a powerful offensive inside the southern part of Damascus, a Syrian military source told Al-Masdar this morning. According to the military source, the Islamic State began their assault byÃâà...
RT
April 14, 2018
Washington, London, and Paris used last week's alleged chemical attack in Douma, near Damascus, as the pretext for an early morning missile attack on civilian and military targets in Syria. The air invasion came just hours before a group of inspectors dispatched by the UN's Organisation for the ProhibitionÃâà...
Department of Defense
April 14, 2018
The 70 nations in the defeat ISIS coalition remain committed to defeating ISIS in Syria. The strike tonight separately demonstrates international resolve to prevent chemical weapons from being used on anyone, under any circumstance, in contravention of international law. I want to emphasize that theseÃâà...
ABC News
April 13, 2018
President Donald Trump's order for U.S. missile strikes on Syria has once again called attention to the presence of American troops who have operated inside Syria ... With the loss of their de-facto capital in Syria, ISIS fighters fled southeast towards the middle Euphrates River Valley close to the Iraq border.
Department of Defense
April 13, 2018
On April 9, coalition forces conducted three strikes consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets. Two strikes near Dashisha engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed two vehicles and a logistics hub, a strike near Shadaddi engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a logistics hub. -- On April 7 near Abu Kamal,Ãâà...
CBS News
April 13, 2018
MOSUL, Iraq -- Authorities in Mosul have buried more than 1,000 bodies in a mass grave in a desert valley outside the city, most of them believed to be Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group militants, according to a provincial official. More remains are being dug out of the rubble of the district where theÃâà...
NL Times
April 13, 2018
No Dutch soldiers will be prosecuted for bombings by the anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq and East Syria in which civilians were killed, the Public Prosecutor decided. The Dutch soldiers did not break the law of war, the the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs wrote in a letter to parliament, RTL Nieuws reports.
Press Herald
April 13, 2018
MOSUL, Iraq — Authorities in Mosul have buried more than 1,000 bodies in a mass grave in a desert valley outside the city, most of them believed to ... Nearly all of that territory has been wrested back in the campaign led by U.S.-backed Iraqi and Syrian forces, except for small pockets held by ISIS in Syria.
The Guardian
April 13, 2018
In Syria, the United States – with but a small force being used to eliminate what is left of ISIS – is doing what is necessary to protect the American people. Over the last year, nearly 100 per cent of the territory once controlled by the so-called ISIS caliphate in Syria and Iraq has been liberated and eliminated.
Sputnik International
April 12, 2018
The former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage said today that attacking Syria and overthrowing Assad's government could lead to *Daesh gaining strength and territory in the Arab state. “What comes next [after Assad's removal]? Chaos, instability, and maybe, maybe a chance for ISISÃâà...
Axios
April 12, 2018
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress Thursday that the United States is primarily in Syria to suffocate ISIS. "Our role in Syria is the defeat of ISIS. We are not going to engage in the civil war [between Bashar al-Assad's government and forces of opposition] itself," he said, but added that "at times youÃâà...
PBS NewsHour
April 12, 2018
What should the U.S. government do with American citizens who traveled to live among the Islamic State? Sam El Hassani is an American woman who is being held with her children by Kurdish forces in northern Syria after living in Raqqa with her husband, who was an ISIS sniper. Special correspondentÃâà...
Mirror.co.uk
April 12, 2018
... years, we've worked closely with the Ministry of Defence and key allies to grow these capabilities at pace. “Much of this is too sensitive to talk about in detail, but I can tell you that GCHQ, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, has conducted a major offensive cyber campaign against Daesh (ISIS).
PBS NewsHour
April 12, 2018
The El Hassani family are not the only Americans who went to land controlled by ISIS in Syria and Iraq. They're among the dozens that we know of who have ventured to the caliphate since 2014. For more on their fates, I'm joined by Seamus Hughes. He's the deputy director of the Program on Extremism atÃâà...
New York Times
April 12, 2018
It was an acknowledgment of a lesson from the Iraq war about what can go wrong after a military assault without a plan, one senior Defense Department official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive plans. It also sought to ensure that the United States and European allies could justifyÃâà...
Axios
April 11, 2018
This map shows which groups dominate different parts of Syria, including the areas controlled by the Syrian government and the areas held by opposition groups, according to analysts at IHS Markit's Conflict Monitor. The big picture: This gives the latest look at the conflict zones as President TrumpÃâà...
Newsweek
April 9, 2018
Iraq's Al-Sumeria television network cited intelligence sources who said ISIS official Abu Walid al-Checheni was tracked and killed in an operation in the ... Baghdadi changed the name to ISIS in 2013 after spreading his ultraconservative Sunni Islamist insurgency into neighboring Syria, where the West,Ãâà...
Rudaw
April 9, 2018
“Both praised the victories over Daesh [ISIS] terrorist gangs and the liberation of all of Iraqi soil, achieved by the determination of the heroic Iraqi forces ... The White House issued its own statement on Sunday, in which President Trump also highlighted the importance of Iraqi unity in advance of Iraq's MayÃâà...
CNN
April 9, 2018
Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh made the comments during a wide-ranging interview with CNN, which they consented to, from inside a detention facility in northern Syria where they are being held by US-backed Syrian Kurds. The pair gained notoriety for being part of a British-accented group ofÃâà...
The New Yorker
April 5, 2018
Two pockets of ISIS fighters—numbering in the low thousands—remain in the eastern Euphrates Valley and along the border with Iraq. Among them is the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “We have to work through some very difficult issues as we speak,” he said. “We are going to complete that mission.”.
Newsweek
April 4, 2018
Iran has also played a large role in the battle against ISIS, supporting mostly Shiite Muslim militias in both Iraq and Syria via the elite Revolutionary Guards. Despite both the U.S. and Iran contributing to the battle, Trump and his administration have identified Tehran's growing influence in the Middle East asÃâà...
Hindustan Times
April 4, 2018
Relatives of the two construction workers who were killed by Islamic State militants in Iraq in 2014 staged agitation on Tuesday when the bodies reached the respective villages in Bengal's Nadia district. The agitated members of the two families and local people demanded jobs and compensation for theÃâà...
ABC News
April 4, 2018
White House says US military mission against ISIS in Syria coming to 'rapid end,' offers no timetable for withdrawal. By The Associated Press. WASHINGTON — Apr 4, 2018, 11:09 AM ET. 0 Shares. Email. Star. 0 Shares. Email Ãâ÷ White House says US military mission against ISIS in Syria coming to 'rapid end,' offers noÃâà...
Chicago Sun-Times
April 4, 2018
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday that the U.S. and its partners remain committed to eliminating the small Islamic State group presence that continues in Syria. Sanders says the administration will continue to consult with allies regarding future plans. Trump discussedÃâà...
Middle East Monitor
April 4, 2018
The situation in Syria remains a challenge, added Al-Abadi, because of Daesh's presence in several areas, especially near the Iraqi border. There is a regional conflict over Iraq, he pointed out as he explained that he wants to establish serious relations with all regional countries and keep the conflict awayÃâà...
NPR
April 4, 2018
'Two Sisters' Follows Norwegian Teenagers Who Left Home To Join ISIS FIghters In Syria ... When ISIS started expanding its hold on Iraq and Syria, tens of thousands of foreign fighters went to join the caliphate. In Norway, two teenage girls decided to leave their family for Syria. Their story is the subject ofÃâà...
Rudaw
April 4, 2018
He told White House reporters on Tuesday that regarding the defeat of ISIS in Syria, "we've almost completed that task. ... and our mission isn't over, and we're going to complete that mission,” said Brett McGurk, a rare Obama-administration holdover who heads the anti-ISIS portfolio in Iraq and Syria.
Al-Arabiya
April 4, 2018
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that ISIS had been defeated in Syria, but it retains its destructive potential and can attack countries around the world, Interfax news agency cited him as saying. “It is evident that despite its military situation, this terrorist group retains a significantÃâà...
CNN
April 4, 2018
Trump has said publicly that he's ready to withdraw troops from Syria, but his top military commanders have argued the battle against ISIS is not yet complete. "The military mission to eradicate ISIS in Syria is coming to a rapid end, with ISIS being almost completely destroyed," a statement from White HouseÃâà...
Newsweek
March 23, 2018
U.S. pilots run the risk of starting a war with any of the multitude of nations flying combat missions in the increasingly turbulent skies over Syria—including Russia and Iran—a U.S. Navy rear admiral told USNI News. As the number of ISIS targets diminish and new fronts open, Syrian airspace is becomingÃâà...
Daily Sabah
March 23, 2018
Iraq has detained or imprisoned at least 19,000 people accused of connections to the Daesh terrorist group or other terror-related offenses, and sentenced more than 3,000 of them to death, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. The mass incarceration and speed of guilty verdicts raiseÃâà...
FactCheck.org
March 23, 2018
President Donald Trump said nearly all of the land once controlled by ISIS in Syria and Iraq has been retaken and “it all took place since our election.” But even the State Department's senior envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition said in December that half of the ISIS caliphate was recaptured underÃâà...
Department of Defense
March 23, 2018
Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve and its partners continued to strike Islamic State of Iraq and Syria targets in designated parts of Syria and Iraq between March 16-22, conducting 14 strikes consisting of 19 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.
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