November 7, 2016 12:44 pm
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IPA /ÃËaêsáµ»l/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria[note 1] (ISIS, /ÃËaêsáµ»s/),[39] Islamic State (IS), and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh (Arabic: ïçùôââ¬Å½Ã¢â¬Å½ dÃÂÿish, IPA: [ÃËdaÃÂÃâ¢ÃªÃÆ]),[40][41] is a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam.[42] The group's adoption of the name Islamic State and its idea of a caliphate have been widely criticised, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups rejecting its statehood.[43]
The group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many individual countries. ISIL is widely known for its videos of beheadings[44] of both soldiers and civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and its destruction of cultural heritage sites.[45] The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has charged the group with ethnic cleansing on a "historic scale" in northern Iraq.[46]
ISIL originated as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and participated in the Iraqi insurgency following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces. The group first proclaimed itself a worldwide caliphate[47][48] and began referring to itself as Islamic State (çÃâïÃËÃâé çÃâÃ¥óÃâçÃâ¦ÃŠé ad-Dawlah al-IslÃÂmiyah) or IS[49] in June 2014. As a caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide.[50]
ISIL gained prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive,[51] followed by its capture of Mosul[52] and the Sinjar massacre.[53] In Syria, the group has conducted ground attacks on both government forces and opposition factions. By December 2015, the group had control over vast landlocked territory in Iraq and Syria, with a population estimate ranging between 2.8 million[54] and 8 million people,[55] wh