By JEREMY ASHKENAS, ARCHIE TSE, DEREK WATKINS and KAREN YOURISH
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How ISIS Came to Control Large Portions of Syria and Iraq
The militant group called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria seemed to surprise many American and Iraqi officials with the recent gains it made in its violent campaign to create a new religious state. But the victories achieved in the past few weeks were built on months of maneuvering along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which define a region known as the cradle of civilization.
In 2013, ISIS emerged from the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq and began to operate in Syria. The vacuum created by the country’s civil war provided a place for ISIS to rebuild. Syrian rebel groups initially welcomed ISIS as an ally, but soon realized that they did not have the same goals. ISIS was more interested in forming an Islamic state than in toppling the Syrian government — and had no problem with killing other insurgents to make it happen. These tensions culminated in a revolt against ISIS. The group was driven out of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, in January by the other rebel groups.
ISIS Control
After being pushed out of Aleppo, ISIS moved east, attacking rebel bases and taking over towns like this one, near the border with Turkey, that are arteries for money and supplies.
Deir Hafir: Cutthroat Tactics
ISIS Control
ISIS has inspired a new generation of jihadists with its emphasis on creating an Islamic state and its willingness to kill Shiites and even rival Sunnis, like when it recently crucified eight rebel fighters in the town square here for being too moderate. Al Qaeda, which has preached against the wanton spilling of Muslim blood, severed ties to ISIS in February and has condemned its tactics.
Maskana: Terror Through Social Media
ISIS Control
ISIS may practice a seventh-century version of Islam, but its public outreach is thoroughly modern. It has used Facebook as a death-threat generator; the text-sharing app JustPaste to upload book-length tirades; and YouTube and Twitter to post gruesome videos and photos to terrify its enemies (reportedly live-tweeting the amputation of a man's hand in this town, for example).
Tabqa Dam: Seizing Infrastructure
ISIS Control
In addition to targeting cities and towns, ISIS has also sought control of major pieces of infrastructure, including dams, oil fields and a refinery. In some cases, like here at the Tabqa Dam, the group has negotiated with the workers at the facilities to keep them running. Built more than 40 years ago with Russian help, this dam provides electricity to a large part of Syria, including areas under ISIS’s control.
Raqqa: Instituting Strict Rules
ISIS Control
Via Associated Press
In keeping with its goal of creating an Islamic state, ISIS has instituted strict rules in most of the towns it has seized. In this city, which was the provincial capital and is now ISIS's de facto capital, smoking and music are banned, women must cover their faces and shops must close at prayer time. The punishment for not complying: execution in the main square.
Deir al-Zour: Besieging a Provincial Capital
Attacked by ISIS
Ahmad Aboud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
While ISIS holds sway over much of the oil-rich province of which this city is the capital, control of the capital itself has been split among other rebel groups and the Syrian government. ISIS took control of a bridge leading into the city, creating a partial blockade.
Abu Kamal: Erasing the Syria-Iraq Border
ISIS Control
ISIS seized the Syrian side of this border crossing on June 30 after brutal clashes with a Syrian insurgent group. Now, with both sides of the crossing under its control, ISIS can move men and supplies easily between Iraq and Syria. It is also another step closer to achieving its goal of creating an Islamic state across the two countries.
Qaim: Iraqi Forces Flee Border Post
ISIS Control
ISIS took control of this crossing on June 22 after Iraqi troops, sent to reinforce the border, fled. Members of that unit said they were eager to fight but that their commanders failed to provide them with water and food, causing them to abandon their positions.
Rawa: Without a Fight
ISIS Control
ISIS captured this town and neighboring Ana after Iraqi troops fled, though a government spokesman said the security forces withdrew as a “tactical” move to reinforce troops in other areas.
Haditha Dam: Concerns About Sabotage
With the nearby towns of Rawa and Ana under ISIS control, officials are concerned that the group could capture Haditha Dam, Iraq’s second-largest, and wreak havoc. When ISIS fighters seized the Falluja Dam in April, they opened it, flooding crops as far as 100 miles south. The water washed east as well, reaching Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad. On the other hand, ISIS fighters have been in control of the Tabqa Dam in Syria for months without major incident.
Ramadi: The Government Provides an Opening for ISIS
ISIS Control
Tensions between this city’s residents, who are mostly Sunni, and the central government had been brewing here for at least a year. Then in December, Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, ordered security forces to dismantle a protest camp — an outlet for disenchanted Sunnis angered at their treatment by the Shiite-dominated government. The action ignited days of violence and created the opening ISIS needed to seize parts of the city, the provincial capital.
Falluja: A Symbolic Fall
ISIS Control
Mohammed Jalil/European Pressphoto Agency
Just days after the raid on the camp in Ramadi, ISIS fighters destroyed the Police Headquarters and mayor’s office here, planted their flag on government buildings and decreed the city to be theirs. Ten years earlier, American forces had captured this city from Qaeda-style insurgents at a considerable cost of American lives.
Abu Ghraib: Escapees Fuel Insurgency
ISIS received an influx of recruits after a prison break in July 2013 at the detention center here. The escapees, who were imprisoned by the Maliki government or during the American occupation, are now among ISIS's leaders and foot soldiers. The group also attracts militants from around the world. Its recruits are better paid, better trained and better armed than other rebel groups and even the national armies of Syria and Iraq, according to leaders of rival factions.
Renewed Efforts to Control Anbar
Tensions in Anbar, the Iraqi province at the heart of the Sunni resistance after Saddam Hussein was deposed, were largely contained until about 2012. But the withdrawal of American troops and growing resentment over Shiite political domination gave ISIS — newly strengthened in northeastern Syria — an opening to lead an insurrection. Months before the dramatic fall of Mosul, ISIS had already seized many towns along the Euphrates in Anbar Province. After the fall of Mosul, the group captured more towns and key border posts in the province with little effort.
After establishing footholds in Syria and Anbar Province, ISIS turned to northern Iraq. The swift capture of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and a key political, military and commercial hub, gave ISIS a launching pad for a rapid series of attacks in which its fighters seized towns along the Tigris River heading south to Baghdad.
Tal Afar: Purported Capture of a General
ISIS Control
Less than a week after the fall of Mosul, ISIS captured this city after a two-day battle with the Iraqi Army. The militants announced that they had also captured the commander of Iraqi forces in the city, Gen. Abu al-Waleed, and planned to execute him in a square in central Mosul. Residents said the militants used bullhorns to call people to the execution, but it never took place. General Waleed’s voice was later heard on Iraqi state television disputing the insurgents’ claims.
Mosul: Iraq’s Second-Largest City Captured
ISIS Control
The rout in Mosul was humiliating for Iraq’s security forces. Within days of taking over the city, ISIS issued edicts laying out the strict terms of Islamic law under which they would govern, and singling out some police officers and government workers for summary execution. But residents have said that ISIS has yet to crack down as much as expected.
Hawija: Uneasy Alliances
ISIS Control
ISIS exploited disenchantment among Iraq's Sunnis to align with other Sunni militant groups, who have been critical in helping ISIS capture so much territory so quickly. A key alliance of former officers of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party allowed ISIS to claim cities like Hawija. But they are unlikely to coexist for long. The Baathists, more secular and nationalistic, have no interest in strict Islamic law, and there are already reports that the two groups are fighting each other here.
Baiji: Battle for Oil
Attacked by ISIS
Once dependent on Persian Gulf donors,ISIS is becoming independently wealthy. The group started building a bankroll after seizing oil fields in Raqqa, from which it sells much of the crude to the Syrian government. ISIS also sustains many operations through a combination of border tolls, extortion and selling grain. The group has been battling for the refinery here since taking Mosul. If captured, it could provide ISIS with another potentially lucrative source of income.
Tikrit: Mass Executions
Attacked by ISIS
The day after seizing Mosul, ISIS captured Tikrit, another major Iraqi city and the hometown of Saddam Hussein. Intending to ignite fear and anger among Shiites, ISIS boasted on social media that it executed 1,700 members of the Iraqi military here. The figure has not been confirmed, but Human Rights Watch said its analysis suggested that ISIS killed as many as 190 men in Tikrit between June 11 and June 14.
Samarra: Stoking Sectarian War
Attacked by ISIS
ISIS, which has made no secret of its intention to incite another sectarian war, has been trying to attack a sacred Shiite shrine here. ISIS fired shells into the shrine on June 30, killing six people but only slightly damaging the holy site. An attack on the shrine in 2006 set off a wave of sectarian violence across the country.
Baquba: Cycle of Violence
Attacked by ISIS
About a week after capturing Mosul, ISIS militants took control of several neighborhoods here but were pushed back by security forces. The next day, the bodies of 44 Sunni prisoners were found in a government-controlled police station in Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. Baquba, and the surrounding province of Diyala, is a volatile mix of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and was the scene of some of the worst sectarian violence in past years.
Baghdad: Shiite Stronghold
ISIS has pledged to march on Baghdad, but seizing and controlling the sprawling Iraqi capital, with its large population of Shiites, will be much more difficult than advancing across the Sunni heartland. Large sections of Baghdad and southern Iraq’s Shiite provinces have been swept up in a call to arms. The Shiite supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for all able-bodied Iraqis to join militia units to fight beside the army against ISIS.
Mosul Dam Lake
BaghdadAleppoMosulIRAQSYRIA
Additional reporting by TIM ARANGO, MIKE BOSTOCK, C.J. CHIVERS, MOHAMMAD GHANNAM, BEN HUBBARD, ROD NORDLAND, NILKANTH PATEL and ALISSA RUBIN. Satellite images by NASA/USGS Landsat (2014).
Sources: Caerus Associates, Congressional Research Service, Institute for the Study of War, Long War Journal, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
Note: ISIS Control indicates places controlled by ISIS as of July 3. Attacked by ISIS indicates places that ISIS has attacked, tried to seize or once controlled. Statuses shown are for places where information was available.
Source Link
How ISIS Came to Control Large Portions of Syria and Iraq
The militant group called the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria seemed to surprise many American and Iraqi officials with the recent gains it made in its violent campaign to create a new religious state. But the victories achieved in the past few weeks were built on months of maneuvering along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which define a region known as the cradle of civilization.
In 2013, ISIS emerged from the remnants of Al Qaeda in Iraq and began to operate in Syria. The vacuum created by the country’s civil war provided a place for ISIS to rebuild. Syrian rebel groups initially welcomed ISIS as an ally, but soon realized that they did not have the same goals. ISIS was more interested in forming an Islamic state than in toppling the Syrian government — and had no problem with killing other insurgents to make it happen. These tensions culminated in a revolt against ISIS. The group was driven out of Aleppo, Syria's largest city, in January by the other rebel groups.
ISIS Control
After being pushed out of Aleppo, ISIS moved east, attacking rebel bases and taking over towns like this one, near the border with Turkey, that are arteries for money and supplies.
Deir Hafir: Cutthroat Tactics
ISIS Control
ISIS has inspired a new generation of jihadists with its emphasis on creating an Islamic state and its willingness to kill Shiites and even rival Sunnis, like when it recently crucified eight rebel fighters in the town square here for being too moderate. Al Qaeda, which has preached against the wanton spilling of Muslim blood, severed ties to ISIS in February and has condemned its tactics.
Maskana: Terror Through Social Media
ISIS Control
ISIS may practice a seventh-century version of Islam, but its public outreach is thoroughly modern. It has used Facebook as a death-threat generator; the text-sharing app JustPaste to upload book-length tirades; and YouTube and Twitter to post gruesome videos and photos to terrify its enemies (reportedly live-tweeting the amputation of a man's hand in this town, for example).
Tabqa Dam: Seizing Infrastructure
ISIS Control
In addition to targeting cities and towns, ISIS has also sought control of major pieces of infrastructure, including dams, oil fields and a refinery. In some cases, like here at the Tabqa Dam, the group has negotiated with the workers at the facilities to keep them running. Built more than 40 years ago with Russian help, this dam provides electricity to a large part of Syria, including areas under ISIS’s control.
Raqqa: Instituting Strict Rules
ISIS Control
Via Associated Press
In keeping with its goal of creating an Islamic state, ISIS has instituted strict rules in most of the towns it has seized. In this city, which was the provincial capital and is now ISIS's de facto capital, smoking and music are banned, women must cover their faces and shops must close at prayer time. The punishment for not complying: execution in the main square.
Deir al-Zour: Besieging a Provincial Capital
Attacked by ISIS
Ahmad Aboud/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
While ISIS holds sway over much of the oil-rich province of which this city is the capital, control of the capital itself has been split among other rebel groups and the Syrian government. ISIS took control of a bridge leading into the city, creating a partial blockade.
Abu Kamal: Erasing the Syria-Iraq Border
ISIS Control
ISIS seized the Syrian side of this border crossing on June 30 after brutal clashes with a Syrian insurgent group. Now, with both sides of the crossing under its control, ISIS can move men and supplies easily between Iraq and Syria. It is also another step closer to achieving its goal of creating an Islamic state across the two countries.
Qaim: Iraqi Forces Flee Border Post
ISIS Control
ISIS took control of this crossing on June 22 after Iraqi troops, sent to reinforce the border, fled. Members of that unit said they were eager to fight but that their commanders failed to provide them with water and food, causing them to abandon their positions.
Rawa: Without a Fight
ISIS Control
ISIS captured this town and neighboring Ana after Iraqi troops fled, though a government spokesman said the security forces withdrew as a “tactical” move to reinforce troops in other areas.
Haditha Dam: Concerns About Sabotage
With the nearby towns of Rawa and Ana under ISIS control, officials are concerned that the group could capture Haditha Dam, Iraq’s second-largest, and wreak havoc. When ISIS fighters seized the Falluja Dam in April, they opened it, flooding crops as far as 100 miles south. The water washed east as well, reaching Abu Ghraib, near Baghdad. On the other hand, ISIS fighters have been in control of the Tabqa Dam in Syria for months without major incident.
Ramadi: The Government Provides an Opening for ISIS
ISIS Control
Tensions between this city’s residents, who are mostly Sunni, and the central government had been brewing here for at least a year. Then in December, Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, ordered security forces to dismantle a protest camp — an outlet for disenchanted Sunnis angered at their treatment by the Shiite-dominated government. The action ignited days of violence and created the opening ISIS needed to seize parts of the city, the provincial capital.
Falluja: A Symbolic Fall
ISIS ControlMohammed Jalil/European Pressphoto Agency
Just days after the raid on the camp in Ramadi, ISIS fighters destroyed the Police Headquarters and mayor’s office here, planted their flag on government buildings and decreed the city to be theirs. Ten years earlier, American forces had captured this city from Qaeda-style insurgents at a considerable cost of American lives.
Abu Ghraib: Escapees Fuel Insurgency
ISIS received an influx of recruits after a prison break in July 2013 at the detention center here. The escapees, who were imprisoned by the Maliki government or during the American occupation, are now among ISIS's leaders and foot soldiers. The group also attracts militants from around the world. Its recruits are better paid, better trained and better armed than other rebel groups and even the national armies of Syria and Iraq, according to leaders of rival factions.
Renewed Efforts to Control Anbar
Tensions in Anbar, the Iraqi province at the heart of the Sunni resistance after Saddam Hussein was deposed, were largely contained until about 2012. But the withdrawal of American troops and growing resentment over Shiite political domination gave ISIS — newly strengthened in northeastern Syria — an opening to lead an insurrection. Months before the dramatic fall of Mosul, ISIS had already seized many towns along the Euphrates in Anbar Province. After the fall of Mosul, the group captured more towns and key border posts in the province with little effort.
After establishing footholds in Syria and Anbar Province, ISIS turned to northern Iraq. The swift capture of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and a key political, military and commercial hub, gave ISIS a launching pad for a rapid series of attacks in which its fighters seized towns along the Tigris River heading south to Baghdad.
Tal Afar: Purported Capture of a General
ISIS Control
Less than a week after the fall of Mosul, ISIS captured this city after a two-day battle with the Iraqi Army. The militants announced that they had also captured the commander of Iraqi forces in the city, Gen. Abu al-Waleed, and planned to execute him in a square in central Mosul. Residents said the militants used bullhorns to call people to the execution, but it never took place. General Waleed’s voice was later heard on Iraqi state television disputing the insurgents’ claims.
Mosul: Iraq’s Second-Largest City Captured
ISIS Control
The rout in Mosul was humiliating for Iraq’s security forces. Within days of taking over the city, ISIS issued edicts laying out the strict terms of Islamic law under which they would govern, and singling out some police officers and government workers for summary execution. But residents have said that ISIS has yet to crack down as much as expected.
Hawija: Uneasy Alliances
ISIS Control
ISIS exploited disenchantment among Iraq's Sunnis to align with other Sunni militant groups, who have been critical in helping ISIS capture so much territory so quickly. A key alliance of former officers of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party allowed ISIS to claim cities like Hawija. But they are unlikely to coexist for long. The Baathists, more secular and nationalistic, have no interest in strict Islamic law, and there are already reports that the two groups are fighting each other here.
Baiji: Battle for Oil
Attacked by ISIS
Once dependent on Persian Gulf donors,ISIS is becoming independently wealthy. The group started building a bankroll after seizing oil fields in Raqqa, from which it sells much of the crude to the Syrian government. ISIS also sustains many operations through a combination of border tolls, extortion and selling grain. The group has been battling for the refinery here since taking Mosul. If captured, it could provide ISIS with another potentially lucrative source of income.
Tikrit: Mass Executions
Attacked by ISIS
The day after seizing Mosul, ISIS captured Tikrit, another major Iraqi city and the hometown of Saddam Hussein. Intending to ignite fear and anger among Shiites, ISIS boasted on social media that it executed 1,700 members of the Iraqi military here. The figure has not been confirmed, but Human Rights Watch said its analysis suggested that ISIS killed as many as 190 men in Tikrit between June 11 and June 14.
Samarra: Stoking Sectarian War
Attacked by ISIS
ISIS, which has made no secret of its intention to incite another sectarian war, has been trying to attack a sacred Shiite shrine here. ISIS fired shells into the shrine on June 30, killing six people but only slightly damaging the holy site. An attack on the shrine in 2006 set off a wave of sectarian violence across the country.
Baquba: Cycle of Violence
Attacked by ISIS
About a week after capturing Mosul, ISIS militants took control of several neighborhoods here but were pushed back by security forces. The next day, the bodies of 44 Sunni prisoners were found in a government-controlled police station in Baquba, about 40 miles north of Baghdad. Baquba, and the surrounding province of Diyala, is a volatile mix of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and was the scene of some of the worst sectarian violence in past years.
Baghdad: Shiite Stronghold
ISIS has pledged to march on Baghdad, but seizing and controlling the sprawling Iraqi capital, with its large population of Shiites, will be much more difficult than advancing across the Sunni heartland. Large sections of Baghdad and southern Iraq’s Shiite provinces have been swept up in a call to arms. The Shiite supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for all able-bodied Iraqis to join militia units to fight beside the army against ISIS.
Mosul Dam Lake
BaghdadAleppoMosulIRAQSYRIA
Additional reporting by TIM ARANGO, MIKE BOSTOCK, C.J. CHIVERS, MOHAMMAD GHANNAM, BEN HUBBARD, ROD NORDLAND, NILKANTH PATEL and ALISSA RUBIN. Satellite images by NASA/USGS Landsat (2014).
Sources: Caerus Associates, Congressional Research Service, Institute for the Study of War, Long War Journal, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights
Note: ISIS Control indicates places controlled by ISIS as of July 3. Attacked by ISIS indicates places that ISIS has attacked, tried to seize or once controlled. Statuses shown are for places where information was available.
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