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Timeline: Islamic State group's rise and fall Paris, Dec 7 (AFP) Dec 07, 2022 Five years ago, on December 9, 2017, Iraq claimed victory over the once powerful Islamic State group, which had proclaimed a "caliphate" and seized a large chunk of the country. A little more than a year later, the jihadist group would also be defeated in Syria, where three of its leaders were killed, and reduced to a network of sleeper cells. Here is a timeline of the rise and fall of IS.
Raqa, in northern Syria, and Mosul, Iraq's second-biggest city, become its two de-facto capitals.
Some atrocities are broadcast for use as propaganda. In Iraq, IS seizes in August 2014 the historic home of the Yazidi minority in Sinjar region, forcing children to become soldiers and using thousands of women as sex slaves. United Nations special investigators in 2021 report they have collected "clear and convincing evidence" of genocide by IS against the Yazidis.
The United States deploys around 5,000 soldiers to the region.
The Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and nearby Fallujah are retaken the following year. And in July 2017, then-Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declares the jihadists' defeat in Mosul. On December 9, Abadi announces a final victory against IS.
In August 2016, the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptures Manbij in Aleppo province. Turkish-backed Syrian rebels retake Jarabulus, and then, in February 2017, Al-Bab, the last IS bastion in Aleppo province. In March, Syrian troops backed by Russian jets take back the ancient town of Palmyra, and in October the SDF announces the full recapture of Raqa. The SDF proclaims the defeat of the "caliphate" in March 2019 after seizing Baghouz, IS's final bastion in Syria.
A UN report in February says the jihadist group has "10,000 active fighters" in Syria and Iraq.
Some 2,500 US soldiers and 1,000 coalition troops remain deployed there as trainers.
Over several days of fighting, hundreds of people die before Kurdish forces regain control.
He is replaced by Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, who IS says on November 30 has been killed in battle. The group names Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi as its third leader in less than a year. |
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