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Al-Queda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri reveals the production of Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), and establishes Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as its leader.
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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi comes to be leader of ISI after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri are eliminated in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation.
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ISI proclaims its absorption of an al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra. Al-Baghdadi says that his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
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Al Qaeda renounces connections to ISIS after months of infighting in between al-Nusra Front and also ISIS.
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ISIS takes control of Mosul and Tikrit.
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ISIS reveals the development of a caliphate (Islamic state) that eliminates all state perimeters, making al-Baghdadi the self-declared authority over the world’s Muslims.
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ISIS takes control of a major Syrian oil field, al-Omar.
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In a video uploaded on YouTube, U.S. reporter James Foley, missing out on in Syria since 2012, is guillotined by ISIS militants. The militants then threaten the life of another caught U.S. reporter, thought to be Steven Sotloff.
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ISIS releases a video showing the beheading of hostage Alan Henning. It criticizes the U.S.-led battle campaign against ISIS in Iraq as well as Syria. In the exact same video, the group endangers the life of American aid employee Peter Kassig.
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The United States executes airstrikes against ISIS. The bombing is focused on the ISIS garrison of Raqqa, a city in northern Syria.
