Last week I wrote about how open-source documents expose that the CIA worked directly with Saudi princes to create ISIS Only problem that is a complete work of fiction
The group was founded in 1999 by Jordanian radical Abu Musab al-Zarqawi under the name Jam�ʻat al-Taw�¸¥Ä«d wa-al-Jih�d (lit. ”The Organisation of Monotheism and Jihad”).[28] In October 2004, al-Zarqawi pledged allegiance (Bay’ah) to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and renamed the group to Tan�“Ä«m QÄÊ»idat al-Jih�d f�« Bil�d al-R�fidayn (lit. ”The Organisation of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia”), commonly known as al-Qaeda in Iraq or AQI. Under al-Zarqawi, the group participated in the Iraqi insurgency following the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces.
In January 2006, the group joined other Sunni insurgent groups to form the short-lived Mujahideen Shura Council. After al-Zarqawi was killed in June 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council merged in October 2006 with several more insurgent factions to establish ad-Dawlah al-�»Ir�q al-Isl�miyah, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI),[58] led by Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri,[59] who were killed in a US–Iraqi operation in April 2010, being succeeded by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the group's new leader.
In August 2011, following the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, ISI, now under the leadership of al-Baghdadi, delegated a mission into Syria, which under the name Jabhat an-Nu�£rah li-Ahli ash-Sh�m (or al-Nusra Front) established a large presence in Sunni-majority ar-Raqqah, Idlib, Deir ez-Zor, and Aleppo provinces. In April 2013, al-Baghdadi decreed the reunification of the Syrian al-Nusra Front with ISI to form the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL). However, Abu Mohammad al-Julani and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leaders of al-Nusra and al-Qaeda respectively, rejected the merger. After an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIL by February 2014, citing its failure to consult and “notorious intransigence”.[3][52]
In early 2014, ISIL drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Anbar campaign,[43] which was followed by the capture of Mosul[44] and the Sinjar massacre.[45] The loss of control almost caused a collapse of the Iraqi government and prompted a renewal of US military action in Iraq. In Syria, the group has conducted ground attacks on both government forces and rebel factions.
Foundation, 1999–2006
Main articles: Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn and Mujahideen Shura Council (Iraq)
Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Jordanian Salafi jihadist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his militant group Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, founded in 1999, achieved notoriety in the early stages of the Iraqi insurgency for the suicide attacks on Shia Islamic mosques, civilians, Iraqi government institutions and Italian soldiers partaking in the US-led ‘Multi-National Force’. Al-Zarqawi’s group officially pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network in October 2004, changing its name to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد ÙÙŠ بلاد الراÙدين, “Organisation of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia”), also known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).[1][76][77] Attacks by the group on civilians, Iraqi government and security 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 says “was established only to challenge any new Islamic entity”.[78]
In January 2006, AQI joined with several smaller Iraqi insurgent groups under an umbrella organisation called the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC). According to Brian Fishman, this was little more than a media exercise and an attempt to give the group a more Iraqi flavour, and perhaps to distance al-Qaeda from some of al-Zarqawi’s tactical errors, more notably the 2005 bombings by AQI of three hotels in Amman.[79] 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.[80][81]
On 12 October 2006, the MSC united with three smaller groups and six Sunni Islamic tribes to form the “Mutayibeen Coalition”. It swore by Allah “to rid Sunnis from the oppression of the rejectionists (Shi'ite Muslims) and the crusader occupiers ... to restore rights even at the price of our own lives ... to make Allah's word supreme in the world, and to restore the glory of Islam”.[82][83] A day later, the MSC declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), comprising Iraq's six mostly Sunni Arab governorates.[84] Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was announced as its emir,[58][85] and al-Masri was given the title of Minister of War within the ISI’s ten-member cabinet.[86]
As Islamic State of Iraq, 2006–13
Main article: Islamic State of Iraq
According to a study compiled by United States intelligence agencies in early 2007, the ISI—also known as AQI—planned to seize power in the central and western areas of Iraq and turn it into a Sunni caliphate.[87] The group built in strength and at its height enjoyed a significant presence in the Iraqi governorates of Al Anbar, Diyala and Baghdad, claiming Baqubah as a capital city.[88][89][90][91]
The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 supplied the United States military with more manpower for operations targeting the group, resulting in dozens of high-level AQI members being captured or killed.[92]
Between July and October 2007, al-Qaeda in Iraq was reported to have lost its secure military bases in Al Anbar province and the Baghdad area.[93] During 2008, a series of US and Iraqi offensives managed to drive out AQI-aligned insurgents from their former safe havens, such as the Diyala and Al Anbar governorates, to the area of the northern city of Mosul.[94]
By 2008, the ISI was describing itself as being in a state of “extraordinary crisis”.[95] Its violent attempts to govern its territory led to a backlash from Sunni Arab Iraqis and other insurgent groups and a temporary decline in the group, which was attributable to a number of factors,[96] notably the Anbar Awakening.
In late 2009, the commander of US forces in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, stated that the ISI “has transformed significantly in the last two years. What once was dominated by foreign individuals has now become more and more dominated by Iraqi citizens”.[97] On 18 April 2010, the ISI’s two top leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, were killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid near Tikrit.[98] In a press conference in June 2010, General Odierno reported that 80% of the ISI’s top 42 leaders, including recruiters and financiers, had been killed or captured, with only eight remaining at large. He said that they had been cut off from al-Qaeda’s leadership in Pakistan.[99][100][101]
On 16 May 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was appointed the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq.[102][103] Al-Baghdadi replenished the group's leadership, many of whom had been killed or captured, by appointing former Ba’athist military and intelligence officers who had served during Saddam Hussein's rule.[104] These men, nearly all of whom had spent time imprisoned by the US military, came to make up about one third of Baghdadi’s top 25 commanders. One of them was a former colonel, Samir al-Khlifawi, also known as Haji Bakr, who became the overall military commander in charge of overseeing the group's operations.[105][106] Al-Khlifawi was instrumental in doing the ground work that led to the growth of ISIL.[107]
In July 2012, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to former strongholds from which US troops and the Sons of Iraq had driven them in 2007 and 2008.[108] He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons.[108] Violence in Iraq had begun to escalate in June 2012, primarily with AQI’s car bomb attacks, and by July 2013, monthly fatalities exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008.[109]
Seymour Hersh is claiming that the Joint Chiefs used a back channel of communication with the Germans and Russians in order to counter CIA bolstering the radical Islamists. The military had voiced significant concern about the move to oust Assad, but they were overruled. Hersh claims that they then facilitated the transfer of US Intelligence to Assad through the Germans, which helped Assad fight the insurgents the CIA was arming. The article also claims that Assad had helped the US military in the past, providing interrogation facilities in Damascus. It's worth taking a look at this.
