Use our new interactive timeline to track significant events tracing the origins, emergence and history of the group known as Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh).
When ISIS captured Mosul, one of Iraq's biggest cities in June of 2014, the world was stunned. The highly-equipped and US trained Iraqi Army had deserted the city en masse, leaving the civilian population of Mosul at the whims of one of the most brutal terrorist movements in history.
Observers around the world were left wondering who this group was which had successfully captured enormous swathes of Iraq and Syria, where they had come from, and who was its leadership. Just as shocking to people and governments around the world was why so many citizens of dozens of different countries were attracted to the brutality and violence of this mysterious group which was marauding through much the Middle East.
This Timeline seeks to answer some of these questions and to contextualise both the emergence of IS in its historical context as well as the global fight against the group.
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