Foreign and Domestic Wars Against Terror
Major ISIS Events Past and Present
2004 - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi establishes al Qaeda in Iraq.
June 2006 - Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike.
October 2006 - al Qaeda leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri announces the creation of Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is the leader.
April 2010 - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes leader of ISI after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri are killed in a U.S.-Iraqi operation.
April 2013 - Al-Baghdadi says that his group will now be known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Al-Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani rejects ISIS's attempt to merge with the group.
February 2014 - Al Qaeda removes ties to ISIS.
May 2014 - ISIS kidnaps more than 140 schoolboys in Syria, forcing them to take lessons in radical Islamic theology.
June 2014 - ISIS takes control of Mosul, Tikrit, Al-Qaim, and 3 other Iraqi towns. Iraqi Kurdistan restricts border crossings for people fleeing the fighting. ISIS announces the creation of an Islamic State, removing all state borders, making al-Baghdadi the leader over the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. The Pentagon announces the United States is sending an additional 300 troops to Iraq, bringing the total U.S. forces in Iraq to about 800. US troops provide support to the U.S. Embassy, the airport in Baghdad, and support to Iraqi security forces.
July 2014 - In Syria, all the cities between Deir Ezzor city and the Iraq border have fallen to ISIS.
August 2014 - ISIS storms the Iraqi town of Sinjar, home to the Yazidis. Hundreds of Yazidi men are killed, thousands of Yazidi women and girls are captured and raped and sold into slavery, and more than 40,000 are stranded in the Sinjar Mountains. ISIS begins to release videos of killing innocent American hostages
September 2014 - The CIA announces that the number of people fighting for ISIS may be more than three times the previous estimates. The United States carries out airstrikes against ISIS.
January 2015 - ISIS demands $200 million from Japan in exchange for the lives of two Japanese hostages. U.S. diplomatic officials say that coalition airstrikes have killed thousands of ISIS fighters, including half of the top command of the gorup.
February 2015 - The Pentagon estimates ISIS has about 20,000 to 30,000 fighters. Barack Obama asks Congress to formally authorize use of military force against ISIS.
March 2015 - In an audio message, a speaker claims ISIS to have expanded to western Africa.
May 2015 - ISIS claims responsibility for the attack outside a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas.