A Timeline of the Islamic State

By jmmcdonough

  • Operation Desert Storm

    Operation Desert Storm
    The U.S. launches Operation Desert Storm following Iraqi attacks on neighboring Kuwait with a “ferocious aerial bombardment” which was “followed by a ground war in late February, forcing a humiliating Iraqi retreat from Kuwait and sowing seeds of enduring hatred for America in many Iraqi hearts” (Atwan 2015, 38).

  • Operation Shock and Awe

    Operation Shock and Awe
    The U.S. and the coalition of the willing launched Operation Shock and Awe with a similar aerial bombardment followed by ground troops on the false pretense that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This war would destabilize the region, embroil the U.S. in a decade long conflict, and create the vacuum within which ISIS would rise to power.

  • ISIS establishes the Caliphate

    ISIS establishes the Caliphate
    Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declares the Islamic State the new caliphate and names himself as caliph (Atwan 2015, 9) emphasizing his ties to the Prophet Muhammad “through word, gesture, and lineage” and emphasizing “the Salafists’ desire to return to the lifestyle of the first Muslims” (Atwan 2015, 111). This declaration followed the capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, by ISIS’s forces.

  • Murder of a Jordanian Pilot

    Murder of a Jordanian Pilot
    ISIS disseminates the video of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh burning alive in a cage, highlighting both the brutality of the regime and the extent and power of their digital apparatus (Atwan 2015, 22-23).

  • The Battle for Mosul

    The Battle for Mosul
    The effort to retake Mosul from ISIS begins in earnest by Iraqi troops. Many predict that this effort will ultimately be successful but will result in massive death tolls on both sides and a humanitarian crisis. International response to ISIS has severely weakened it militarily and financially. Observers hope that retaking Mosul will be ISIS’s last major stand and force the organization to either evolve and adapt or fall out favor with the global jihadi movement similar to al-Qaeda’s decline.

  • The Arab Spring

    The Arab Spring
    The Arab Spring starts in Tunisia and results in a “series of revolutions that unseated the apostate rulers Islamic extremists had for decades longed to depose” (Atwan 2015, 69). Attempts at revolution were started by protestors in Syria and would lead to the civil war that continues to this day and provided another arena for ISIS to join in the fighting and consolidate its power. ISIS was also able to capture cities in Libya following that countries revolution.