The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and by its Arabic acronym Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist group and a former unrecognised quasi-state. Its origins were in the Jai'sh al-Taifa al-Mansurah organization founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004, which fought alongside al-Qaeda during the Iraqi insurgency. The group gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants successfully captured large territories in northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria, taking advantage of the ongoing Syrian civil war. By the end of 2015, it ruled an area with an estimated population of twelve million people, where it enforced its extremist interpretation of Islamic law, managed an annual budget exceeding US$1 billion, and commanded more than 30,000 fighters.
The Boko Haram insurgency began in July 2009, when the militant Islamist and jihadist rebel group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria. The conflict is taking place within the context of long-standing issues of religious violence between Nigeria's Muslim and Christian communities, and the insurgents' ultimate aim is to establish an Islamic state in the region.
Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, commonly known by his nom de guerreAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was an Iraqi militant who was the first caliph of the Islamic State (IS) from 2014 until his death.
Abu Mohammed Abubakar al-Sheikawi was a Kanuri terrorist who was the leader of Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist militant group from 2009 to 2021. He served as deputy leader to the group's founder, Mohammed Yusuf, until Yusuf's execution in 2009.
The Islamic State (IS) 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, mainly in the Mesopotamian region. 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. As of 2023, large swathes of Mali are under IS control, where they had had the most success recently.
The Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP), officially Wilāyat Garb Ifrīqīyā, meaning "West African Province", is a militant group and administrative division of the Islamic State (IS), a Salafi jihadist militant group and unrecognised quasi-state. ISWAP is primarily active in the Chad Basin, and fights an extensive insurgency against the states of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Turkey. It is an offshoot of Boko Haram with which it has a violent rivalry; Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau killed himself in battle with ISWAP in 2021. Until March 2022, ISWAP acted as an umbrella organization for all IS factions in West Africa including the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (IS-GS), although the actual ties between ISWAP and IS-GS were limited.
The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISIS–K) is a regional branch of the Islamic State terrorist group active in South-Central Asia, primarily Afghanistan. ISIS–K, like its sister branches in other regions, seeks to destabilize and overthrow existing governments of the historic Khorasan region in order to establish an Islamic caliphate under its strict, fundamentalist Islamist rule.
The Islamic State – Yemen Province is a branch of the militant Islamist group Islamic State (IS), active in Yemen. IS announced the group's formation on 13 November 2014.
Abu Musab al-Barnawi, born Habib Yusuf, is a Nigerian Islamic militant who served as the leader of the Islamic State's branch in West Africa (ISWAP) between August 2016 and March 2019, and again around May 2021. He also served in various other capacities within ISWAP such as head of its shura. Before pledging allegiance to IS, al-Barnawi was the spokesperson for Boko Haram. Multiple sources reported that al-Barnawi was killed in 2021, but later research by the Crisis Group, Humangle Media, and others proved that these claims were inaccurate.
Hasan al-Utaybi known by his nom de guerre Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir was the kunya used by the official spokesman of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from 5 December 2016 until 27 October 2019, when he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in northwest Syria. He was a Saudi national. He was replaced by Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi.
The Chad Basin campaign of 2018–2020 was a series of battles and offensives in the southern Chad Basin, particularly northeastern Nigeria, which took place amid the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency. The Chad Basin witnessed an upsurge of insurgent activity from early November 2018, as rebels belonging to the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram launched offensives and several raids to regain military strength and seize territory in a renewed attempt to establish an Islamic state in the region. These attacks, especially those by ISWAP, met with considerable success and resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The member states of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MJTF), namely Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon responded to the increased insurgent activity with counter-offensives. These operations repulsed the rebels in many areas but failed to fully contain the insurgency.
The origins of the Islamic State group can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. The other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces. These included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year.
On 26–27 October 2019, the United States conducted a military operation code named Operation Kayla Mueller that resulted in the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the then-leader and self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. The operation took place in the outskirts of Barisha, Idlib Governorate, Syria. According to General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) commander who oversaw the operation, Baghdadi killed himself along with two children when he detonated a suicide belt while seeking to evade U.S. forces during the raid.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was an Iraqi militant and the second caliph of the Islamic State. His appointment by a shura council was announced by the Islamic State media on 31 October 2019, less than a week after the death of previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
In May 2021, the Islamic State's West Africa Province (ISWAP) launched an invasion of the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, Nigeria, which was serving as the main base of Boko Haram, a rival jihadist rebel group. Following heavy fighting, ISWAP overran the Boko Haram troops, cornering their leader Abubakar Shekau. The two sides entered negotiations about Boko Haram's surrender during which Shekau committed suicide, possibly detonating himself with a suicide vest. Shekau's death was regarded as a major event by outside observers, as he had been one of the main driving forces in the Islamist insurgency in Nigeria and neighboring countries since 2009.
Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, probably born Nour Karim al-Mutni Al-Obaidi Al-Rifai, was an Iraqi militant and the third caliph of the Islamic State. He was named as caliph on 10 March 2022, in an audio message by the new spokesperson of IS, Abu Umar al-Muhajir, whose announcement came more than a month after the death of his predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. The message said that Abu al-Hassan was given a pledge of allegiance in response to the will of the former caliph. The Turkish government claimed that he was arrested in Istanbul on 26 May 2022. Later, Islamic State sources denied news reports of his arrest in the 347th issue of their weekly newsletter Al-Naba.
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi was the fourth caliph of the Islamic State and allegedly the first Syrian to serve as caliph. He took office on 30 November 2022.
Between December 30, 2022 and January 7, 2023, Boko Haram launched a series of raids against Islamic State – West Africa Province on various islands on Lake Chad, with major battles occurring on Toumbun Allura Karnawa and Toumbun Gini.
Abu Omar al-Muhajir is the former spokesman for the Salafi jihadist group Islamic State (IS), from 10 March 2022 until his capture in April 2023 by the Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He succeeded Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi in March 2022, and was replaced by Abu Hudayfah Al-Ansari in August 2023.
