isil

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام‎ Participant in the Iraq War (2003–2011), Iraqi insurgency, Syrian Civil War, Iraqi Civil War, Second Libyan Civil War, Boko Haram insurgency, War in North-West Pakistan, War in Afghanistan, Yemeni Civil War, and other conflicts
Black Standard flag
Active	1999–present Established under the name of Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad: 1999 Joined al-Qaeda: October 2004 Declaration of an Islamic state in Iraq: 13 October 2006 Claim of territory in the Levant: 8 April 2013 Separated from al-Qaeda: 3 February 2014 Declaration of caliphate: 29 June 2014 Claim of territory in: Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen: 13 November 2014 South Asia: 29 January 2015 Nigeria: 12 March 2015 North Caucasus: 23 June 2015
Ideology	Salafism, Salafi jihadism, Wahhabism
Groups	List of groups Libyan Province Sinai Province Yemen Province Algerian Province Khorasan Province West Africa Province Caucasus Province
Leaders	List of leaders Leader: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Deputy leader in Iraq: Abu Fatima al-Jaheishi Deputy leader in Syria: Abu Ali al-Anbari † Deputy leader in Libya: Abdel Baqer Al-Najdi Military chief: Abu Saleh al-Obaidi Head of the Shura Council: Abu Arkan al-Ameri Chief spokesperson: Abu Mohammad al-Adnani † Chief of Syrian military operations: Abu Omar al-Shishani † (presumed) Minister of War: Gulmurod Khalimov Minister of Information: Wa’il Adil Hasan Salman al-Fayad † "Spokesman": Abu Al-Hassan Al-Muhajir (foreign fighter)
Headquarters	Al-Raqqah, Syria
Area of operations	Areas of control as of 000000002016-11-25-0000November 25, 2016, in the Iraqi, Syrian, and Lebanese conflicts Map legend   Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant   Iraqi government   Syrian government   Lebanese government   Iraqi Kurdistan forces   Syrian Kurdistan forces   Syrian opposition forces   al-Nusra Front   Hezbollah Note: Iraq and Syria contain large desert areas with limited populations. These areas are mapped as under the control of forces holding roads and towns within them. Detailed maps Detailed map of the Syrian Civil War Detailed map of the Iraqi insurgency Detailed map of the Lebanese insurgency Detailed map of the Libyan Civil War Detailed map of the Nigerian insurgency Detailed map of the Sinai insurgency Detailed map of the Yemeni Civil War Detailed map of the Taliban insurgency
Strength	List of combatant numbers Inside Syria and Iraq: 200,000 (Kurdish claim in 2014) 100,000 (Jihadist claim in 2014) 20,000–31,000 (CIA estimate in 2014) 19,000–25,000 (CIA estimate in early 2016) 15,000–20,000 (Estimate given by US officials in late 2016) Outside Syria and Iraq: 32,600–57,900 (See Military of ISIL for more detailed estimates.) Estimated total: 47,600–257,900
Originated as	Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (1999)

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, /ˈaɪsᵻl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS, /ˈaɪsᵻs/), Islamic State (IS), and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh (Arabic: داعش‎‎ dāʿish, [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]), is a Salafi jihadist unrecognised state and militant group that follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. Its adoption of the name Islamic State and its idea of a caliphate have been widely criticised, with the United Nations, various governments, and mainstream Muslim groups rejecting its statehood.

This group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and many individual countries. ISIL is widely known for its videos of beheadings of both soldiers and civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and its destruction of cultural heritage sites. The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, and Amnesty International has charged the group with ethnic cleansing on a "historic scale" in northern Iraq.

ISIL originated as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, which pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and participated in the Iraqi insurgency following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces. The group first proclaimed itself a worldwide caliphate and began referring to itself as Islamic State (الدولة الإسلامية ad-Dawlah al-Islāmiyah) or IS in June 2014. As a caliphate, it claims religious, political and military authority over all Muslims worldwide.

ISIL gained prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre. In Syria, the group has conducted ground attacks on both government forces and opposition factions. By December 2015, the Islamic State covered a vast landlocked territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria, with a population estimate of 2.8–8 million people, where it enforces its interpretation of sharia law. ISIL is now believed to be operational in 18 countries across the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, with "aspiring branches" in Mali, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines.