Country Report on Terrorism 2024 - Chapter 4 - Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Aka:  al-Qa’ida in Iraq; al-Qa’ida Group of Jihad in Iraq; al-Qa’ida Group of Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers; al-Qa’ida in Mesopotamia; al-Qa’ida in the Land of the Two Rivers; al-Qa’ida of Jihad in Iraq; al-Qa’ida of Jihad Organization in the Land of the Two Rivers; al-Qa’ida of the Jihad in the Land of the Two Rivers; al-Tawhid; Jam’at al-Tawhid Wa’al-Jihad; Tanzeem Qa’idat al Jihad/Bilad al Raafidaini; Tanzim Qa’idat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn; the Monotheism and Jihad Group; the Organization Base of Jihad/Country of the Two Rivers; the Organization Base of Jihad/Mesopotamia; the Organization of al-Jihad’s Base in Iraq; the Organization of al-Jihad’s Base in the Land of the Two Rivers; the Organization of al-Jihad’s Base of Operations in Iraq; the Organization of al-Jihad’s Base of Operations in the Land of the Two Rivers; the Organization of Jihad’s Base in the Country of the Two Rivers; al-Zarqawi Network; Islamic State of Iraq; Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham; Islamic State of Iraq and Syria; ad-Dawla al-Islamiyya fi al-’Iraq wa-sh-Sham; Daesh; Dawla al Islamiya; al-Furqan Establishment for Media Production; Islamic State; ISIL; ISIS; Amaq News Agency; Al Hayat Media Center; al-Hayat Media Center; Al Hayat.

Description:  Al-Qa’ida in Iraq was designated as an FTO on December 17, 2004.  During the 1990s, Jordanian militant Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi organized a terrorist group called al-Tawhid wal-Jihad to oppose the presence of U.S. and Western military forces in the Middle East as well as the West’s support for, and the existence of, Israel.  In 2004, Zarqawi joined al-Qa’ida and pledged allegiance to Usama bin Laden, and his group became known as al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI).  Zarqawi led AQI during Operation Iraqi Freedom to fight against U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq until he was killed in 2006.

In 2006, AQI publicly renamed itself the Islamic State in Iraq before adopting the moniker of ISIS in 2013, to express its regional ambitions as it expanded operations to include the Syrian conflict.  ISIS was led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared an Islamic caliphate and separated this group from al-Qa’ida in 2014, before he was killed in 2019.  In 2017, the U.S.  military, fighting with local Syrian allies, announced the liberation of Raqqa, Syria, the self-declared capital of ISIS’s so-called caliphate.  Also in 2017, then-Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq.  In 2018, the SDF, with support from the Defeat-ISIS Coalition, began a final push to oust ISIS fighters from the lower Middle Euphrates River Valley in Syria.  2019 marked the full territorial defeat of ISIS’s so-called caliphate; however, ISIS remained a serious threat.  The group benefits from instability, demonstrating intent to cause and inspire terrorist attacks around the world.  To that end, ISIS has relied on its regional General Directorate of the Provinces to provide operational guidance and funding to its branches, networks, and affiliates worldwide through its regional offices.  These offices include the Iraq-based Bilad al-Rafidayn Office, the al-Furqan Office (West Africa and the Sahel), the Dhu al-Nurayn Office (North Africa and Sudan), the Afghanistan-based al-Siddiq Office (South, Central, and Southeast Asia), and the al-Karrar Office (East, Central, and Southern Africa and Yemen regions).In 2023, ISIS emir Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi was killed, and Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi was named as the group’s new leader.

Activities:  In 2024, ISIS conducted numerous attacks, including 153 claimed attacks in Iraq and Syria in just the first six months of the year.  In July, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack on a mosque in Oman that killed six people and injured more than two dozen, and an attack on a tour group in Afghanistan that killed three Spanish and three Afghan nationals and wounded seven.

Strength:  ISIS was estimated to have 3,500 members in Iraq and Syria, most of whom are fighters.  Since at least 2015, the group has integrated local children and children of FTFs into its forces and used them as executioners and suicide attackers.  ISIS has systematically prepared child soldiers in Iraq and Syria using its education and religious infrastructure as part of its training and recruitment of members.  ISIS has also abducted, raped, and otherwise abused thousands of women and children, some as young as 8 years old.  Women and children were sold and enslaved, distributed to ISIS fighters as spoils of war, forced into marriage and domestic servitude, or otherwise subjected to physical and sexual abuse.

Location/Area of Operation:  Iraq and Syria, with branches and networks around the world.

Funding and External Aid:  ISIS received most of its funding from a variety of criminal activities in Iraq and Syria.  Criminal activities included extortion of civilian economies, smuggling oil, and robberies.  The organization maintains stockpiles of as much as tens of millions of dollars, scattered across Iraq and Syria, which it looted during its occupation of those countries during 2013-19.  ISIS continues to rely on trusted courier networks and money services businesses to move its financial resources within and outside of Iraq and Syria.  The territorial defeat of ISIS that eliminated its control of territory in Syria in 2019 reduced the group’s ability to generate, hold, and transfer its financial assets.  Despite this, ISIS continues to generate revenue from criminal activities through its many clandestine networks and provides financial support and guidance to its global branches and affiliates.

Associated documents