Trail Of Darkness

Origins

1999

Originally called Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (The Group of Monotheism and Jihad) or JTJ, and founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian national living in Iraq, the Sunni Islamist group forms with the purpose of overthrowing the government of Jordan.

2004-06

After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Zarqawi pledges his loyalty to Osama bin Laden. The group now calls itself Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn or "Organisation of Jihad's Base in the Land of the Two Rivers," although it is often described as "al-Qaeda in Iraq." The group's new stated objective is to fight US coalition troops and their Iraqi allies. Beginning in 2006, Nuri al-Maliki's predominantly Shia government begins to exclude Sunnis from government positions.

2005-09

Although the US Department of Defense claims that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was held in Camp Bucca, a detention camp in southeastern Iraq, for only a matter of months in 2004, newspapers including the Washington Post and New York Times say it was four years.

2011

As the US finishes its withdrawal from Iraq, the "Islamic State of Iraq" sees its ranks double in size. The group continues to launch attacks against Shia tribal militias, Iraqi police and the Iraqi army, which is largely Shiite. Next door, the Syrian Civil War begins in March.

Break up

October 2013

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri demands that the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" disband and leave the formerly allied Syrian rebel group the al-Nusra Front in charge of operations against Bashar al-Assad's government. Al-Baghdadi refuses.

February 2014

Following months of internal strife, ISIL or ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) breaks away from al-Qaeda and al-Nusra. ISIS changes its focus from challenging al-Assad's government to creating an Islamic caliphate that covers the region.

Violent Profile

June 7, 2014

ISIS fighters storm Anbar University in Ramadi, blowing up a bridge on campus and detaining dozens of students.

June 10

ISIS militants seize Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, overnight. They take control of government buildings, prisons, and TV stations.

June 11

ISIS fighters capture the city of Tikrit. Refugees flee to Iraqi Kurdistan.

June 15, 2014

ISIS posts pictures on the Internet of thousands of bodies, those of Iraqi soldiers who fled a nearby base for fear of the extremists.

June 29, 2014

The terrorist group shortens its name to "Islamic State" and declares al-Baghdadi caliph of all Muslims. Still many call it ISIS.

August 8

The US military begins a series of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Northern Iraq.

September 2

ISIS releases a video they claim shows the beheading of US citizen and journalist Steven Sotloff. Like Foley, Sotloff was forced to read an anti-American statement.

September 10 

Speaking the night before the 13th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Obama promises to "degrade and ultimately destroy" Islamic State and announces a broader anti-terrorism strategy that will expand to include targets in Syria.

Source: Deutsche welle