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Isis seizes control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, then the day after, the group takes Tikrit.
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Isis declares a caliphate across controlled areas in Syria and Iraq while calling for global allegiance. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declares himself the leader – or caliph - of the 1.8 billion Muslims all over the world. This takeover is a huge achievement in the regimes mass movement of violence establishing a “home base” for the group of terror.
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Al-Baghdadi calls for all Muslims to gather to his new land and unite to “capture Rome” and own the world. Al-Baghdadi is taking an Alexander the Great approach to world domination and taking control of anything in his path. This nonstop conquering worries many countries in ISIS’s wave of destruction.
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ISIS takes control of al-Omar, Syria’s largest oil-field. The loss of the oil field effects Syria’s economy and any other country receiving oil from the field.
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Al-Baghdadi is recorded in his first public appearance, at the Grand Mosque in Mosul, calling on all Muslims to obey him.
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Isis claims to have killed 270 people after seizing the Shaer gas field in Syria. Days later dozens of Iraqi Christians leave after a warning by ISIS that it will carry out a similar attack if they do not convert to Islam.
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Isis blows up Jonah’s tomb, a holy site in Jewish heritage.
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• 3rd : Militants capture the city of Sinjar. They begin a massacre that culminates in the deaths of over 5,000 men from the Yazidi religious sect. Thousands of women are raped and sold into slavery. 200,000 Yazidi flee with as many as 50,000 becoming stranded on the Sinjar Mountains surrounded by ISIS.
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Kurdish forces join the fight against Isis.
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US President Barack Obama authorises the first air strikes, which subsequently drop bombs outside the Kurdish city of Erbil, where Isis movement had sparked a mass exodus.
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Isis’ media arm uploads a video entitled “Message to America,” showing the beheading of the American journalist and hostage James Foley. The masked militant, who speaks with a British accent, demands the U.S. ceases air strikes.
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The US announces the formation of a coalition to “destroy the threat posed by Isis”. The ten-nation coalition comprises of US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.
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The CIA announces that Isis now has between 20,000 to 31,500 fighters.
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Isis is pushed back from the Syrian city of Kobani with help from US air strikes.
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Iraqi government officials claim that Isis leader al-Baghdadi is wounded in a coalition air strike near Mosul.
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A recording of al-Baghdadi surfaces as in which he claims the US military-led campaign is failing and that the coalition of “America and its allies are terrified, weak and powerless” and to “light the Earth with fire under all the tyrants and their soldiers and supporters.”
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Isis is pushed out of most of the Sinjar region of Iraq. The Sinjar offensive is considered a success with a Kurdish victory.
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Isis attacks Saudi Arabia near the border city of Arar, killing four border guards.
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Kurdish fighters take control of the Syrian border town of Kobani after fighting Isis for months.
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President Obama asks Congress to authorize use of military force against Isis.
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Isis takes responsibility for a suicide bombing that kills 137 people and wounds over 300 in Yemen.
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Iraqi government declares Tikrit free of Isis forces.
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Abu Alaa Afri, the deputy leader of Isis, is killed in US-led coalition air strike.
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US Special Ops kill Abu Sayaaf, a senior Isis commander, and capture his wife.
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Isis seizes the city of Ramadi in Iraq. Over 500 people are killed.
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The group claims it has seized the Libyan Air Force airport in Sirte.
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A militant posts a “selfie” online, which leads the US military to identify and perform air strikes on a compound, destroying it in the process.
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Kurds take back a key base north of Raqqa from Isis fighters.
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A Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan was struck accidentally after Afghan forces called for air support from the American military. It killed 12 medical staff members and at least 10 patients, three of them children.
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On the evening of 13 November 2015, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks occurred in Paris, the capital of France, and its northern suburb, Saint-Denis.
