History of the Islamic State

The origins of the Islamic State can be traced back to three main organizations. Earliest of these was the "Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād" (transl. "The Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad") organization, founded by the Jihadist leader Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi in Jordan in 1999. Although the other two predecessor organizations emerged during the Iraqi insurgency against the U.S. occupation forces which included the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" (transl. "Army of the Victorious Sect") group founded by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi in 2004 and the "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" (transl. "Army of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama'ah") group founded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his associates in the same year, the modern iteration of the Islamic State was formed after the U.S. occupational forces outlawed the Iraqi branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party putting the Sunni soldiers and bureaucrats out of work.

The group went through a number of name changes as it declared itself not just an organization but a state, and then declared itself as a worldwide caliphate. In 2004, it became Tanẓīm Qāʻidat al-Jihād fī Bilād al-Rāfidayn, commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), when al-Zarqawi gave bay'ah to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The same year, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi established the "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" (JTM) and "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" (JASJ) groups which were allied to al-Qaeda during the early Iraqi insurgency. In January 2006, various Islamist insurgent groups (including AQI, JTM and JASJ) formed a coalition known as the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSM).

A few months after the death of al-Zarqawi in June 2006, MSM announced its dissolution and declared the establishment of an independent organization known as the "Islamic State of Iraq" (ISI), under the leadership of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. ISI participated in the Iraqi insurgency between 2006 and 2011 that sought the end of US occupation of Iraq. In 2010, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was killed during a military raid by US forces near Tikrit, paving the way for the succession of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who became the second Emir of ISI.

In 2013, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his intention to forcibly merge Al-Nusra Front (which it claimed to have established and supported) with ISI and announced the formation of "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant". Al-Qaeda Emir Ayman al-Zawahiri denounced the merger proposal and demanded the abolishment of the new organization, publicly declaring that Al-Nusra Front was the branch of al-Qaeda in Syria. Zawahiri's mediation was rejected by al-Baghdadi, resulting in the eruption of armed conflict between ISIL and al-Qaeda and its allies. In 2014, ISIL proclaimed itself a worldwide caliphate and changed its name to the Islamic State which in a year grew to control territory with a population of millions. On 27 October 2019, al-Baghdadi killed himself to avoid capture during a U.S. raid in northwestern Syria. The group had lost its territory and was back to insurgency mode, though it didn't change its name again.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was founded in 1999 by Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jamāʻat al-Tawḥīd wa-al-Jihād (transl. "The Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad"). In February 2004, the Coalition officials released a document that they claimed to have captured from an Iraqi "operative", detailing plans to foment a "sectarian war" in Iraq with the help of al-Qaeda's central leadership. US officials accused Zarqawi of writing the letter, although the attribution of the letter remained unverified. While Zarqawi was speculated to have been operating in Iraq during that period, he hadn't pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden until October 2004.

Colonel Derek Harvey told Reuters that "the U.S. military detained Badr assassination teams possessing target lists of Sunni officers and pilots in 2003 and 2004 but didn't hold them. Harvey said his superiors told him that 'this stuff had to play itself out' – implying that revenge attacks by returning Shi'ite groups were to be expected." Jerry Burke, an adviser to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, said that in 2005 a plan from him and several colleagues to surveil and stop suspected Badr Brigade death squads in the special police forces was rejected when it got to an American Flag (General) Officer.

In October 2004, when al-Zarqawi swore loyalty to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, he renamed the group Tanẓīm Qāʻidat al-Jihād fī Bilād al-Rāfidayn (transl. "The Organisation of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia"), commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). Although the group never called itself al-Qaeda in Iraq, this remained its informal name for many years. Attacks by the group on civilians, Iraqi government forces, foreign diplomats and soldiers, and American convoys continued with roughly the same intensity. In a letter to al-Zarqawi in July 2005, al-Qaeda's then deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War. The plan included expelling US forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authority as a caliphate, spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbours, and clashing with Israel, which the letter said, "[...] was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity".

In January 2006, AQI joined with several smaller Iraqi Sunni insurgent groups like "Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah" and "Jaysh Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah" under an umbrella organisation called the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC). According to analyst Brian Fishman, the merger was an attempt to give the group a more Iraqi flavour, and perhaps to distance al-Qaeda from some of al-Zarqawi's tactical errors, such as the 2005 bombings by AQI of three hotels in Amman. On 7 June 2006, a US airstrike killed al-Zarqawi, who was succeeded as leader of the group by the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri.