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A non-religious Abu Musab al-Zarqawi traveled to Afghanistan for the first time. There he met Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi, a substantial leader in the violent fundamentalist Islamic movement. Maqdisi successfully recruited Zarqawi and converted him to the cause.
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Zarqawi first meets Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. They were involved in seperate organizations and bin Laden viewed Zarqawi as being untrustworthy for his extremist ideology.
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Zarqawi returned to Jordan and established the jihadist group called the Organization of Monotheism and Jihad (JTWJ). The group was minuscule compared to Al-Qaeda.
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US forces invaded the Iraqi state and left it in chaos. Jihadist groups saw the weak Iraqi government as an opportunity and began moving in.
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JTWJ grew to power in Iraq and got the attention of Al-Qaeda.
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Zarqawi pledged his allegiance with Al-Qaeda, gaining access to money and soldiers. Zarqawi then renamed JTWJ to Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
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Zarqawi was losing popularity from attacks on Shia Muslims and was killed by a US airstrike.
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After the death of Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, Abu Ayyub al-Masri became the new leader of the organization.
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Following many assassinations of AQI members done by Sunni extremists, Masri renamed AQI to the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), in hopes to regain support from some of the locals.
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US-Iraqi forces surrounded Masri during and invasion, who then blew himself up.
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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi named the new leader of ISI following the death of Masri.
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ISI merged with an Al-Qaeda group in Syria and renamed the organization to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
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After days of fighting, ISIS forces took over the city of Raqqa. This city became their proclaimed capital.
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Al-Qaeda was upset with ISIS expanding into Syria and decided that they were no longer on the same team. Al-Qaeda was also in disagreement with ISIS's extremist ways.
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ISIS established a Caliphate which claimed ISIS had power over Muslims all over the world and established Baghdadi as the new successor to the prophet Muhammad.
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President Barack Obama begins airstrikes on ISIS in Iraq to prevent further advancement.
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ISIS starts streaming videos of ISIS members cutting of the heads of reporters in attempts to stop the US airstrikes.
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ISIS forces move into Libya. The location of Libya created tension and vulnerability in Europe.
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US teamed up with some Arab allies and launched a large amount of airstrikes at ISIS in Syria.
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It an attempt to spread the ISIS terrorism to the United States, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, made a public speech which called for any ISIS supporters around the world should join the fight. This is called "homegrown terrorism" and aims to create an image of ISIS being everywhere.
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ISIS continues terrorism throughout the world. The leaders of ISIS hope that the number of attacks increases. They do not plan on stopping.
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A rebel terrorist group in Nigeria announced their allegiance with ISIS and joined the cause. This expanded the ISIS regime into west Africa.
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Two ISIS terrorists attempted a shooting in Texas. They failed...
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ISIS officially occupied half of Syria's territory after capturing the town of al-Tanf.
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ISIS suicide bomber killed 20 people at a Mosque in Saudi Arabia, marking it the first ISIS attack on Saudi Arabian soil.
