Despite losing most of its territory, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, often referred to only as the Islamic State or IS, still possess a threat around the world and continue to spread terror and fear. The terrorist organization reached the peak of its power in 2014 and the years after, when it controlled large areas of Syria and Iraq, and stood behind deadly terrorist attacks in
. However, it lost its territory following a U.S.- and Russian-backed war against them during the years after, and has since received significantly less media attention. Nevertheless, IS has spread to other parts of the world, and remain fully active today, standing behind
The rise and fall of ISIS in Iraq and Syria
Known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, Islamic State originated as Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999. Originally allied to al-Qaeda, the group rose to global prominence during the
civil war in Syria and conflicts in Iraq in the early 2010s. IS declared a caliphate in 2014 with Raqqa as its capital after having conquered large areas in Syria and Iraq. At its zenith, the terrorist organization controlled a total area stretching around 100,000 square kilometers across the two countries. However, as U.S. and Russian military supported the fight against ISIS since 2015, it started to lose control of its territory, a trend also reflected in the
declining number of people killed by the group. At its height, a number of people from Western countries travelled to
join the organization's ranks, and there is an ongoing debate in many countries on what to do with the returnees and whether the foreign fighters left in Iraq and Syria should be
repatriated.
ISIS today: a global terrorist organization
After the group lost much of its territory in Syria and Iraq, it has spread to other countries and regions, with affiliates in Afghanistan and several
African countries such as Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and the Central African Republic. The organization has managed to establish structures in states with weak public institutions. For instance, there has been a surge in the number of both
attacks and
fatalities killed by ISIS in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2018, a country ridden by civil war and terrorism over the past decades. Hence, although the IS has lost most of the territory it held at the height of its power, it continues to pose a threat to people all around the world.
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