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Territory of the Islamic State of Iraq

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Islamic State of Iraq
دَوْلَة الْعِرَاق الإِسْلَامِيَّة
Dawlat al-ʿIrāq al-ʾIslāmiyyah
2006–2013
Flag of Territory of the Islamic State of Iraq
Motto: لَا إِلهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ، مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ (Arabic)
Lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh, Muhammadun rasūlu llāh (Shahada)
"There is no god but God; Muhammad is the messenger of God"
A map depicting the Islamic State of Iraq (dark grey) at its territorial height on 20 October 2006, 5 days after its official establishment.
A map depicting the Islamic State of Iraq (dark grey) at its territorial height on 20 October 2006, 5 days after its official establishment.
StatusUnrecognized proto-state
Designated as a terrorist organization[2]
CapitalBaqubah (2006–2007)
Unknown (2007–2013)
GovernmentUnitary self-proclaimed totalitarian emirate
Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq 
• 2006–2010
Abu Omar al-Baghdadi
• 2010–2013
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Deputy Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq 
• 2010–Unknown
Abu Abdallah al-Husseini al-Qurashi
Prime Minister of the Islamic State of Iraq 
• Unknown–2009
Abu Abdulrahman al-Falahi
• 2009–2010
Abu Ayyub al-Masri
• 2010–Unknown
Abu Suleiman al-Naser
History 
• Established (Replaced the Territory of Al-Qaeda in Iraq)
15 October 2006
• Succeeded by the Territory of the Islamic State
8 April 2013
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Territory of Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Territory of the Islamic State
Today part ofIraq

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) was an unrecognized quasi-state in Western Asia, where it controlled significant swaths of mostly rural and desert territory with a foothold in some urban areas, primarily in the Anbar Province in Western Iraq. It later evolved into the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or simply the Islamic State (IS).

Declaration

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On 15 October 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council declared the creation of the Islamic State of Iraq over the internet.[3] The newly created state encompassed the governorates of Baghdad, Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Saladin, Nineveh, and parts of Babil and Wasit.[4][5] Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was declared the organization's Emir.[5][6] al-Qaeda in Iraq declared its dissolution and joined ISI in October 2006.[7][8]

Territorial control

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In autumn 2006, AQI had taken over Baqubah, the capital of Diyala Governorate, and by March 2007, ISI had claimed Baqubah as its capital.[9] In 2006, AQI/ISI had strongholds in Al Anbar Governorate, from Fallujah to Qaim,[10] and were the dominant power there, according to the US.[11] In 2007, ISI had military units in Baghdad Governorate,[12] and in 2007–2008, ISI had strongholds in Mosul in Ninawa Governorate.[13]

Between July and October 2007, AQI/ISI lost military bases in Anbar province and the Baghdad area[14] and between April 2007 and April 2009, it lost considerable support, mobility and financial backing.[15]

Attempt for expansion into Syria

[edit]

In August 2011, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and al-Qaeda's central command authorized the Syrian al-Qaeda member Ahmed al-Sharaa to set up a Syrian offshoot of al-Qaeda, to bring down the Syrian Assad government and establish an Islamic state there. Golani was part of a small group of ISI operatives who crossed into Syria and reached out to cells of militant Islamists who had been released from Syrian military prisons in May–June 2011 and were already fighting an insurgency against Assad's security forces. Golani's group formally announced itself under the name "Jabhat al-Nusra l'Ahl as-Sham" (Support Front for the People of the Sham) on 23 January 2012.[16][17]

On 22 July 2012, Al-Baghdadi released a 33-minute speech, mostly devoted to the Syrian uprising or civil war: "Our people there have fired the coup de grace at the terror that grasped the nation [Syria] for decades ... and taught the world lessons of courage and jihad and proved that injustice could only be removed by force", he said.[18]

By the second half of 2012, Jabhat al-Nusra stood out among the array of armed groups emerging in Syria as a disciplined and effective fighting force. In December 2012, the U.S. government added Jabhat al-Nusra to its list of "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" and designated the organization as an alias of what the U.S. State Department then described as "al-Qaeda in Iraq". By January 2013, al-Nusra was a formidable force with strong popular support in Syria.[16]

On 8 April 2013, ISI leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi publicly claimed that he had created Jabhat al-Nusra as a Syrian extension of the ISI and announced that he was forcibly merging it with the ISI into one group under his command, forming the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), also known as "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).[16][19][20][21] Ahmed al-Sharaa rejected this merger attempt. Al-Nusra split up, some members, particularly foreign fighters, followed Baghdadi's edict and joined ISIL, others stayed with al-Sharaa.[16]

Government

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Cabinet

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In April 2007, the ISI declared a 'cabinet' of ten 'ministers', under its leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.[22] The 'ministers' included:

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in May 2010 would become the new leader of ISI, was before April 2010 the general supervisor of ISI's provincial sharia committees and a member of its senior consultative council.[26][22]

Recruitment of former Saddam Hussein regime officers

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The New York Times reported that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had a preference for his deputies to be former Ba'athist military and intelligence officers who had served during the Saddam Hussein regime and who knew how to fight and make strategic military plans.[27] He built a management structure of mostly middle-aged, Hussein-era Iraqi officers overseeing the group's departments of finance, arms, local governance, military operations and recruitment.[28] These leaders added and combined terrorist insurgency techniques, refined through years of fighting American troops, with their traditional military skills and tactics, and so made ISI a hybrid of a terrorist organization and military force.[28] Analysts believe a Saddam-era officer, known as Haji Bakr, was appointed as military commander of ISI, heading a military council including three other former regime officers.[27]

History

[edit]

Death of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi

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On 18 April 2010 Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, were killed in a joint US-Iraqi raid on a safehouse near Tikrit,[29]

Appointment of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

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On 16 May 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was announced as the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq; his deputy was Abu Abdallah al-Husseini al-Qurashi.[30]

Dissolution

[edit]

On 8 April 2013, al-Baghdadi released an audio statement in which he claimed that the al-Nusra Front had been established, financed, and supported by ISI,[31] and that the two groups were merging under the name Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIL, Al-Sham also translates as the Levant).[19] However, Ahmed al-Sharaa and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leaders of al-Nusra and al-Qaeda respectively, rejected the merger.[32][33] That same month, al-Baghdadi released an audio message rejecting al-Zawahiri's ruling and declaring that the merger was going ahead.[34][35][36] Besides that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi still changed the name of the ISI group to the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) and didn't reverse his statement about territorial expansion in the Levant.[37]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Militant Iraqi Nationalists Struggle with Approach to al-Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq - Jamestown". jamestown.org. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  2. ↑ "State Accompli: The Political Consolidation of them Islamic State Prior to the Caliphate" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2025-10-05.
  3. ↑ Terrorism, Aymenn Jawad Al-TamimiPerspectives on (Aug 5, 2015). "The Evolution in Islamic State Administration: The Documentary Evidence". Meforum.org. Retrieved July 31, 2026.
  4. ↑ Negus, Stephen (2006-10-15). "Call for Sunni state in Iraq". Financial Times. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
  5. 1 2 Roggio, Bill (2006-10-16). "The Rump Islamic Emirate of Iraq". FDD's Long War Journal. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
  6. ↑ "Senior Qaeda figure in Iraq a myth: U.S. military". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-11-21. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
  7. ↑ "The Islamic State: Leaving al-Qaeda Behind". Carnegie Middle East Center. Archived from the original on 2017-01-20. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
  8. ↑ Perkoski, Evan (2022). "5: Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State". Divided, Not Conquered: How Rebels Fracture and Splinters Behave. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 158, 159. ISBN 9780197627075.
  9. ↑ "TASK FORCE 5-20 INFANTRY REGIMENT OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM 06-07 (under section 'A Commander's Perspective')". US Army 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment. Archived from the original on 18 November 2008. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  10. ↑ Beaumont, Peter (3 October 2006). "Iraqi tribes launch battle to drive al-Qaida out of troubled province". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "Anbar Picture Grows Clearer, and Bleaker - washingtonpost.com". Archived from the original on 2006-11-29. Retrieved 2026-07-23.
  12. ↑ Hurst, Steven R. (1 June 2007). "US battles al-Qaida gunmen in west Baghdad after Sunnis revolt against terror group". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 23 January 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "Al Qaeda in Iraq Ramps Up Its Racketeering | Newsweek Iraq War | Newsweek.com". Archived from the original on 2008-05-25. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
  14. ↑ "Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled - washingtonpost.com". Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
  15. ↑ LondoñO, Ernesto; Alwan, Aziz (24 April 2009). "Suicide Bombers Kill More Than 70 in Baghdad, Diyala Province". The Washington Post. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Abouzeid, Rania (23 June 2014). "The Jihad Next Door". Politico. Archived from the original on 22 August 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
  17. ↑ "Jabhat al-Nusra A Strategic Briefing" (PDF). Quilliam Foundation. 8 January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
  18. ↑ "Al-Qaida: We're returning to old Iraq strongholds - Yahoo! News". Archived from the original on 2012-07-25. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
  19. 1 2 "ISI Confirms That Jabhat Al-Nusra Is Its Extension In Syria, Declares 'Islamic State Of Iraq And Al-Sham' As New Name of Merged Group". MEMRI. 8 April 2013. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
  20. ↑ "Key Free Syria Army rebel 'killed by Islamist group'". BBC News. 12 July 2013.
  21. ↑ "Al-Qaeda in Iraq confirms Syria's Nusra Front is part of its network". Al Arabiya. 9 April 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2014.
  22. 1 2 "Islamic State of Iraq Announces Establishment of the Cabinet of its First Islamic Administration in Video Issued Through al-Furqan Foundation". SITE Institute. 19 April 2007. Retrieved 24 January 2015.
  23. ↑ "Abdullah al Janabi openly preaches in Fallujah mosque". The Long War Journal. 18 January 2014. Archived from the original on 6 September 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  24. ↑ Benraad, Myriam (June 2010). "Assessing AQI's Resilience After April's Leadership Decapitations". CTC Sentinel. 3 (6). Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  25. ↑ "Al-Qaeda 'military leader' Abu Suleiman killed in Iraq". BBC News. BBC. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  26. ↑ "Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Islamic State's driving force". BBC World News. 31 July 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  27. 1 2 "US Actions in Iraq Fueled Rise of a Rebel". The New York Times. 10 August 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  28. 1 2 "Military skill and terrorist technique fuel success of ISIS". The New York Times. 27 August 2014. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  29. ↑ "Top Qaeda Leaders in Iraq Reported Killed in Raid - NYTimes.com". Archived from the original on 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
  30. ↑ "Iraqi Insurgent Group Names New Leaders - The New York Times". atwar.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved 2026-07-20.
  31. ↑ "Qaeda in Iraq confirms Syria's Nusra is part of network". GlobalPost. Agence France-Presse. 9 April 2013. Archived from the original on 13 May 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  32. ↑ "Al-Nusra Commits to al-Qaida, Deny Iraq Branch 'Merger'". Naharnet. Agence France-Presse. 10 April 2013. Retrieved 18 May 2013.
  33. ↑ Atassi, Basma (9 June 2013). "Qaeda chief annuls Syrian-Iraqi jihad merger". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  34. ↑ Atassi, Basma (15 June 2013). "Iraqi al-Qaeda chief rejects Zawahiri orders". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  35. ↑ "Al-Qaeda in Iraq confirms Syria's Nusra Front is part of its network". Al Arabiya. 9 April 2013. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022.
  36. ↑ Abouzeid, Rania (23 June 2014). "The Jihad Next Door: The Syrian roots of Iraq's newest civil war". Politico. Archived from the original on 19 January 2023.
  37. ↑ Haroro Ingram; Craig Whiteside; Charlie Winter (March 2020). "The Declaration of the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham". The ISIS Reader: Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement. Oxford University Press. pp. 149–160. doi:10.1093/oso/9780197501436.003.0007. ISBN 978-0-19-750143-6.
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