2014–2019: ISIS declares a caliphate & attacks civilians

Mosul falls and a claim of statehood follows

In June 2014, forces of the group known as ISIS or ISIL captured Mosul, a major city in Iraq. The group had grown from militant networks amid the Iraq war and Syria’s civil war. Later that month, leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s organization proclaimed a “caliphate” over territory it controlled. Its leaders claimed religious authority, but that claim was rejected by numerous Muslim scholars and communities.

The group imposed harsh rules on clothing, schools, employment and religious practice. It extracted money and resources from people under its control and committed executions and disappearances. Residents could be punished for ordinary acts such as refusing orders, criticizing officials or following a different religious tradition.

The attack on Sinjar

On 3 August 2014, ISIS attacked the Sinjar region of northern Iraq, home to many Yazidis. Fighters killed and abducted people, separated families and enslaved women and girls. United Nations investigators later found reasonable grounds to conclude that ISIS committed genocide against Yazidis, along with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Christians, Shi’a Muslims, other minorities and Sunni Muslims resisting ISIS also faced persecution and attack.

The stories of Yazidi survivors document the human meaning of the group’s ideology: children separated from parents, women sold as captives and families driven from ancestral villages. Those outcomes were choices made by organized leaders and armed followers, not consequences that can be attributed to an entire religion.

Territory lost, consequences remain

Iraqi troops, Kurdish forces, Syrian forces and an international coalition fought against ISIS. Mosul was retaken in 2017 and ISIS lost its last major territorial enclave in Syria in March 2019. Civilians also suffered from the prolonged urban warfare, displacement and destruction during campaigns to defeat the group. Loss of territory did not solve the challenge of missing people, accountability for crimes or small cells capable of further attacks.