lSlS: The Rise & Fall

Summary

The documentary traces the origins, territorial expansion, and decline of the Islamic State, emphasizing the damage it inflicted on civilians and the continuing threat posed by its surviving networks.

• Origins in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s militancy: Jordanian-born Zarqawi adopted Salafi-jihadist beliefs, an extremist ideology that advocates violence to impose a return to a highly conservative interpretation of Islam. The documentary stresses that most mainstream Muslim scholars reject this violent interpretation. After fighting in Afghanistan, Zarqawi built militant networks and eventually operated in Iraq.

• Iraq’s post-invasion instability: Following the 2003 US-led invasion and the fall of Saddam Hussein, political exclusion and sectarian tensions helped create conditions for an insurgency. Zarqawi’s organization, renamed al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in 2004, targeted Shia Muslims and sought to intensify conflict between Sunnis and Shias. Zarqawi was killed in 2006, but his movement survived. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi later rose to leadership, and the group became the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI).

• Growth amid political and regional upheaval: After US forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, the Iraqi government’s treatment of Sunnis helped drive some people toward ISI. At the same time, Syria’s uprising against Bashar al-Assad developed into civil war. ISI exploited the resulting power vacuum, established a Syrian branch called the al-Nusra Front, and later declared a merger that al-Nusra’s leadership rejected. The group then operated independently as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as ISIL.

• Ideology and conquest: ISIS promoted a violent, apocalyptic version of Sunni rule, declaring Muslims who rejected its doctrine to be apostates and targeting religious minorities. It rapidly expanded in Iraq and Syria, capturing cities and resources, including oil fields. In June 2014, after taking Mosul, Baghdadi declared himself caliph and renamed the organization the Islamic State. Its territory eventually covered a vast area and included millions of people.

• Rule through coercion: The group established an authoritarian theocracy, with Baghdadi at its head and appointed officials governing provinces. Its legal and social system imposed severe punishments and sharply restricted the rights of women and religious minorities. Christians and other religious communities faced extortion and persecution; Yazidis were subjected to mass killings, abduction, and enslavement. ISIS also recruited children, indoctrinating and training boys as fighters. Its rule depended on violence, propaganda, and income from resources such as oil.

• Cultural destruction and international attacks: ISIS deliberately destroyed historic and religious sites it considered idolatrous, including monuments at Palmyra and the leaning minaret of Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque. It also used online media and publications to attract foreign recruits and encourage attacks abroad. The documentary cites attacks in Paris, Brussels, Orlando, Nice, London, Manchester, Istanbul, and elsewhere.

• Military reversal: A US-led campaign began in 2014, alongside Iraqi forces and local Kurdish and Syrian forces. ISIS’s attempted advance on the Kurdish city of Kobani was halted, and it began losing territory. Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga, Iranian-backed militias, and Western air support later took part in the campaign to retake Mosul. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), supported by Western air strikes, captured Raqqa in 2017. These defeats ended ISIS’s control of its major urban centers and territorial caliphate.

• Survival as an insurgent and terrorist network: In 2019, US special operations forces raided Baghdadi’s compound; he died after detonating an explosive vest. The documentary concludes that ISIS nevertheless survived as a decentralized terrorist organization, using online outreach and its reputation to inspire or direct attacks. It notes continuing activity in Iraq and Syria and the influence of the group’s Afghan branch, ISIS-K, while emphasizing that the organization’s territorial power is far diminished.

The closing message is that the collapse of ISIS’s territorial state did not eliminate the threat. Understanding the conditions that enabled its rise—and remembering the experiences of people who lived under its rule—remains important.

Speakers and Sources Featured

• Speaker: One unnamed documentary narrator, heard in voice-over.
• Other speakers: No identifiable interviewees or separately identifiable speakers appear in the supplied subtitles. Historical figures and organizations are discussed, but their recorded voices are not identified.