 | |
| Author | Michael Weiss Hassan Hassan |
|---|---|
| Subject | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, terrorism |
| Publisher | Regan Arts |
Publication date | February 17, 2015 |
| Pages | 288 |
| ISBN | 1941393578 |
ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror is a 2015 non-fiction book by the journalists Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan. The book details the rise and inner workings of the terrorist group ISIS. [1]
ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror has been praised by critics. Steve Negus of The New York Times compared the book favorably to Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger's ISIS: The State of Terror and Patrick Cockburn's The Rise of Islamic State, calling ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror "the most comprehensive of the three." He added, "This account of the Islamic State in Iraq is a valuable summation, but it really shines when it reaches the group's entry into Syria starting in 2011. Weiss and Hassan use their own interviews with members to draw out the range of motivations for why Syrians join such an extreme organization." [2] James Traub of The Wall Street Journal was similarly impressed by the work, observing, "If ISIS really were a business-school case, we would want to understand how its distinctive culture evolved. On this subject, Ms. Stern and Mr. Berger largely rely on second-hand sources. We must turn instead to ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, who have talked to a great many of the jihadists themselves and tell a far more detailed and nuanced story." [3] Robin Yassin-Kassab of The Guardian wrote, "Weiss and Hassan have produced a detailed and readable book. Their informants include American and regional military officials and intelligence operatives, defected Syrian spies and diplomats, and – most fascinating of all – Syrians who work for Isis (these are divided into categories such as politickers, pragmatists, opportunists and fence-sitters). The authors provide useful insights into Isis governance – a combination of divide-and-rule, indoctrination and fear – and are well placed for the task." [4]
The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a militant Islamist group and former unrecognized quasi-state that follows the Salafi jihadist branch of Sunni Islam. It was founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 1999 and gained global prominence in 2014, when it drove Iraqi security forces out of key cities during the Anbar campaign, which was followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre.
Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra, known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham after July 2016, and also described as al-Qaeda in Syria or al-Qaeda in the Levant, was a Salafist jihadist terrorist organization fighting against Syrian government forces in the Syrian Civil War. Its aim was to establish an Islamic state in the country. The group has changed its name several times and merged with and separated from other groups.
The military of the Islamic State is the fighting force of the Islamic State (IS). The total force size at its peak was estimated from tens of thousands to over two hundred thousand. ISIL's armed forces grew quickly during its territorial expansion in 2014. The ISIL military, including groups incorporated into it in 2014, openly operates and controls territory in multiple cities in Libya and Nigeria. In October 2016, it conquered the city of Qandala in Puntland, Somalia. It conquered much of eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, territory it lost finally only in 2019. It also has had border clashes with and made incursions into Lebanon, Iran, and Jordan. ISIL-linked groups operate in Algeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, and in West Africa. In January 2015, ISIL was also confirmed to have a military presence in Afghanistan and in Yemen.
The territory of the Islamic State had its core in Iraq and Syria from 2013 to 2017 and 2019 respectively, where the proto-state controlled significant swathes of urban, rural, and desert territory. Today the group controls scattered pockets of land in the area, as well as territory or insurgent cells in other areas, notably Afghanistan, West Africa, the Sahara, Somalia, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A terrorist attack took place on 26 June 2015 in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, near Lyon, France, when a man, Yassin Salhi, decapitated his employer Hervé Cornara and drove his van into gas cylinders at a gas factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier near Lyon, France, which caused an explosion that injured two other people. Salhi was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder linked to terrorism. Three other people were questioned by the police but released without charge. Salhi committed suicide at Fleury-Mérogis Prison in December that year.
The IS-related terrorist attacks in Turkey refers to a series of attacks and clashes between Turkey and the Islamic State (IS) as part of the spillover of the Syrian Civil War. Turkey joined the international military intervention against the Islamic State in 2016, after ISIL attacks in Turkey. The Turkish Armed Forces' Operation Euphrates Shield was partly aimed at IS, and part of the Turkish occupation of northern Syria, around Jarabulus and al-Bab, was conquered from IS.
Oil production and smuggling was the largest source of revenue for the finances of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq until the complete loss of its territory in 2019. Most oil extracted was distributed for use within the Islamic State, but some was also smuggled to surrounding states at below market price.
Collaboration with the Islamic State refers to the cooperation and assistance given by governments, non-state actors, and private individuals to the Islamic State (IS) during the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, and Libyan Civil War.
The 2016 Abu Kamal offensive, also known as Operation Day of Wrath, was launched on the town of Abu Kamal on the Syrian–Iraqi border led by the US-backed New Syrian Army (NSA).
Hassan Hassan is an American author and journalist of Syrian origin. He co-wrote the 2015 New York Times bestseller ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror with Michael Weiss. His work on Islamist groups in the Middle East is widely acclaimed. He frequently appeared on flagship television programs, including The O'Reilly Factor, Amanpour and The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, and has written for The New York Times, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, Financial Times, and The Daily Beast, among others.
Rumiyah was an online magazine used by the Islamic State (IS) for propaganda and recruitment. It was first published in September 2016 and was released in several languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Indonesian and Uyghur.
Michael D. Weiss is an American journalist and author. He is news director at the New Lines magazine, contributing editor at The Daily Beast, director of special investigations at the Free Russia Foundation and the coauthor of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.
Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi is an Iraqi living in Britain who specialises in the Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. He has been consulted as an expert by major media outlets including Al Jazeera,The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, and others. He authored a major report published by the New York Times in partnership with George Washington University in their 2020 series, "The ISIS report". He has faced criticism over his alleged sympathies towards ISIL in his work, as well as his conduct and alleged close relationships with ISIL fighters.
Al-Barakah is a Syrian administrative district of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised proto-state. Originally set up as al-Barakah Province to govern ISIL territories in al-Hasakah Governorate, the province shifted south after 2016 due to the territorial losses to the YPG/YPJ. Having been demoted from province to district in 2018, al-Barakah administered a small strip of land along the Euphrates in Deir ez-Zor Governorate until the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani, since then the "territory" has turned into an insurgency.
The history of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) began with the group's foundation in 1999 by Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād. In a letter published by the US State Department in February 2004, Zarqawi wrote that jihadists should use bombings to start an open sectarian war in Iraq so that Sunnis from other countries would mobilize against the assassinations carried out by Shias, specifically the Badr Organisation, against Ba'athists and Sunnis. The Islamic State would eventually grow to control territory with a population of millions.
Anarchism in Syria emerged as a largely disorganized movement during the authoritarian rule of the Assad government, but following the initiation of the Arab Spring has been a particularly notable factor in the Rojava conflict during the civil uprising phase of the Syrian civil war.
Souad Nawfal is a Syrian Muslim schoolteacher and activist who became known for her protests against Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria. She received the Homo Homini Award, a human rights award, in 2014.
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