Before we begin a warning that this programme contains some discussion of events that may cause distress being and inform citizen is not always easy. You want to know, what's going on, to stay up to date with the big news stories that affect your fellow humans across the planet, but the nonstop headlines makes it difficult to compete we understand what's happening. This is where we hope the explanation from the BBC world service can help I'm anew And in this series I ask some of my bbc colleagues to help me breakdown, big global news events using archive recordings made on the ground to make sense why these stories are important. in syria city where mothers carry guns along with a grocery is today we look at I ass, an ass

how the islamic state group has morphed from a brutal caliphate to a scattered movement that may yet threatened global security. This is the explanation from the BBC world service. The bbc is Quentin. Sommerville is based in beirut, lebanon, he's reported from nearby iraq and syria during the emergence. The rise and fall of the islamic state group in syria takes a lot of confidence to please your windows for the damage done here, isn't just the building amid the ruins this was Elias headquarters. You find reminders of the victims yield the lost the dead so quentin. What has been the impact of islamic state on our modern world? It's a group that emerged from the shadows eight attacked our communities across the world. Its base was the middle east, but it was.

to reach and communities and not only that some of our own people were a part of this enough Almost global terror machine was really is the way that the west, countries in the middle east for wars before the you, war on terror? No one had heard of the islamic state group also referred. two as isis, I saw or just I ass, but in two thousand and three, partly in response to the attacks carried out by Al Qaeda in the u s in two thousand and one president george w bush invaded iraq. What happens once the? U s goes into Iraq. What is going on that gives rise to this idea of islamic state, one of the most striking things about iraq, even under saddam hussein. Who of course was a notorious dictator was Iraq was a very developed country. I think at the time and the united states went in there too, as it does bribed liberate the iraqi people from that dictator and in the process

of doing that, eight but asunder iraqi society prison in southern iraq. Call camp booker not was really the the beginning of the islamic state group. All of these shinny extremists, who had been able to meet in public when they were at liberty. We're all chopped into imprisoned by the americans and they started planning by twenty thirteen. Twenty fourteen there flourishing. Iraq is mainly a sheer society ah and sunny groups over them few years became more and more radicalized and more more ostracised, and as a result of that, some of them went down the path of militancy. Iraq became a quagmire for the united states,

and it suffered a lot of losses, a lot of casualties and it lead the roots really for the islamic state group. Coming later, it started on Monday, when members of the islamic state of iraq and the levant or isis surged on urban areas, the even after a night of heavy shelling echoed across volusia troops and local placement have been pushed outside the city's walls by january, two thousand and fourteen with us forces having struggled to contain ethnic tensions and to quell a sunni insurgent see. I Ass took a major iraqi city and the world began to register. They were a force to be reckoned with. I can remember standing on the road to philadelphia in Iraq and we can get interval. you're, because falada had fallen. This enormous iraqi city, which had been a core of cinema

I can see for for many many years had been taken over by a group and it wasn't Al Qaeda. They had a black flag. We didn't really know what they stood for and that's one of the interesting things from the islamic state group. From the very beginning, the appeared almost completely fully formed. They took over everything instantly. They took over the government streets, sweeping military defence. Obviously they were a terror group, but they were much much more than that. So quentin. Let's talk about the genesis of the islamic state group. What were its aim? It seems from the beginning, were to create this autonomous state which would respect Islam as the interpreter very extremist view of islam. It will draw up those from across the world, regardless of nationality. All that was required was their commitment to that cause, but the carved out from a large part of syria and a large part of iraq

can at one point they had ten million people under their control, an area larger than britain and the dead that, through brute force and terror, now a warning what you're about to hear about. I s tactics is disturbing because for the hung him from the ceiling by his arms and then the beatles started off, it was just fourteen when islamic state captured and tortured him. In june, twenty fourteen, the islamic state group moved into Mosul a city once famed for its mix of christian and muslim fates, cinema and culture. But by now morsel like much of sunni iraq was weary of the. U s: occupation. Everybody around the world started scratching their head at this bunch guys went in and took one of them. I cities in iraq with barely a shot, fired

and the reason why was because the sunni population there had become and credibly disenfranchised and islamic state group had seen this is fertile ground set up a sham, your government and then in the middle of the of the year they drove into the city and they took over. The islamic state group, went in there highlighted the differences between the different communities sunni. She I use he d kurdish groups and sword hate between those groups carried vicious attacks and stopped sectarian tensions in a way that we hadn't seen in years, and he made those gaps wider and wider and wider than than in that massive gap they created, they built their own state. After taking muscle, I asked suddenly went from straight. two strength. It took territory in neighbouring Syria a few days,

it later on june, twenty ninth twenty fourteen, it announced the creation of a caliphate or islamic state with self declared authority over the world's nearly one point: five billion muslims less than a month later it seized oil and gas fields in Syria, with their lucrative profits. By august. Two thousand and fourteen it had launched a genocide against iraqi cities. A religious and ethnic minority. Thousands of men were killed, women and children were enslaved and raped, and the brutality didn't stop there. On august nineteenth, the group posted a video showing the beheading of an american journalist. James Foley, missing in syria, for two years quentin later interviewed one of the I s militants involved. Nor have there's no shame

it wasn't. You have many regrets, not just being previous promised to come, and I have my regrets to. How did you. his torture has beheadings of lakes of jones folly and The position is in Handing and position of not speaking of him at all and negatively Clinton james fully. Now that was pretty key moments when it came to the world's attention and the world's understanding of eye ass. It was a kidnapping strategy and we know that because the main responsible for the so called beetles, who were a group of british jihadists at was their hostages, who called them the beatles

They use could names from John Paul ringle for the different men who are making their lives absolute, and there was one in particular mohammed them was from west london, who became known as jihadi john, and he appealed any video in which he beheaded first james and then a bunch of other people. You knew something big was happening, then that this really didn't give a damn. I was willing to antagonize the most powerful military nation in the world, the united states in the most girls ages fashion, as Clinton mentioned at its peak

islamic state group controlled an area about the size of britain spread across iraq and syria, and its most surprising and troubling recruits were young people raised in liberal western democracies so quentin. What was it that was resonating with these young recruits? They promised a paradise the promised to stay where you could be a true muslim and you be given a house you be given. It here, you'd be serving your god and you would be free from from western influence. This was an organization that was winning people love a winner. Even one is brutal as the islamic state grip for some people. They wanted to be all of that and it drool of people. But there was a second aspect with islamic It is entirely different. You could go online and you can chat islamic state group people in moroccan and mortal but only with the tell you

the wonderful paradise that have been created in iraq and syria? I can also tell you how to get there. I saw it was accepted. Simple in a way that an extremist militant group was an accessible before in september. Twenty fourteen- u s air strikes against. I asked began The united states and the world will simply not stand by and watch as icicles evil spread. our global coalition will succeed. In eliminating the threat from Iraq, from the region and from the world soon, after the? U n, independent in actual commission of enquiry on syria concluded that I Ass had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, as the group continued to release horrific new videos of beheadings and other killings. What triggers the international response against I, as president obama, is very real

to get involved in yours. Even when the enemy was is horrible. This does not lay on his cruel and vicious as the islamic state groups. All that was that constantly in about what should the united states do they weren't going to send troops? There was a very real prospect that Iraq could have fallen. The penny finally dropped with the west, and not just this bombing campaign started by ocean international coalition came together to empower

cool forces in Iraq and in syria, because remember when I Ass rolled across the border from Syria enter iraq. Iraqi forces dropped the weapons and run away, but the battle against I s would continue for nearly three more years before its end, blood would be shed far from the battlefields of iraq and syria in the space of a few hours were killed in central paris and a series of coordinated attacks. Suddenly new spread that revellers at a rock concept here in the popular better, not theatre,

had been taken hostage, but around eighty innocent people had already been killed in november twenty fifteen. I a suicide bombers, hit locations around paris, killing at least one hundred and thirty people and wounding nearly five hundred others so quentin. What does the attack in paris signify in terms of islamic states ambitions its power, its reach is signified that this was a terror group like no other. It was more sophisticated, had a greater reach, than any other terror groups in the world. At that moment it could mount attacks remotely, but direct.

Pretty much anywhere in the world. It was a shock moment for the world in terms of this isn't just a problem for the middle EAST. If we don't check this group, then there will be no rest from because they have the means they are the people and they have the determination to carry out the spectacular and awful attacks. I s also claimed responsibility for attacks on a subway in belgium, an airport in turkey, a tunisian hotel egyptian churches abundantly there. She bakery and from multiple car bombs in lebanon, syria and Iraq killed hundreds of people at a time. In february, twenty seventeen, the tide began to turn against. I ass all night long we ve held coalition aircraft and iraqi artillery

slam this area just to the north of us over there. It's the iraqi flag that flying on the the old again. This is a landmark moment. Iraqi forces now have the islamic state group. On the run. I asked my transform itself into something else, but right now, here in Iraq, we are witnessing the final days of the color, in February twenty seventeen we actually so the real beginning of the end of the islamic state group, because the last part of more saw the real hard core, well, the islamic state group or based in west mortal and the old Began to fall for me, that's when I knew they were finished in december of that year, the iraqi government announced that its war against I s was

over. Did you see that as the official end, a virus at that point was clear that the islamic stay group as a whole if it were finished you know we won't idiots. We knew that we knew that this was a group that had started in the shadows in the desert and in the mountains, and we knew that They go back to the still there, but they ve lost one. They ve lost the momentum to late. They ve lost a coolness from a lot of jobs or something and three they ve lost their territory. I ass is back in northern syria. The caliphate remains: is this graffiti terrorizing and extorting the people here, this man son, was murdered by the jihadists, go let the nurses shepherd whom I witnesses said that car started following them. They caught up with them and then they were kidnapped. They found that decouple

its heads resting on the ash felt. So where is the islamic state group in the twenty twenties? What are we talking about? Show the islamic state group is now all across africa, west africa sub saharan africa. They ve been pretty effective at expanding their on the united states. In august twenty twenty one said that one of the most serious threats facing the world at the moment there. Also in afghanistan two is Al Qaeda and some of the attacks that we are seeing. No in Afghanistan are being carried out by these. Let me stay group against the tallow I'm sure you have the strange situation where a former sergeant group is now the government and there's no facing exactly the same threat that it brought to Its opposition in the afghan government, but enough

a stone with a big open question Clinton. Thank you. So much you're welcome. That's the BBC's quentin somerville explaining why the fall of these lummix day, groups, caliphate doesn't mean its ideas and appeal have disappeared. You ve been listening to the explanation with me and on and on the BBC world service salmon with the latest developments on the islamic state group by visiting the pvc news website and if you. to hear more episodes of the explanation. Please subscribed on BBC sounds thank you for listening. There will be more from the documentary podcast soon Documentary is just one of our bbc world service podcasts. There are many others to choose from If you wear these, we've had a lot of really brilliant letters sent to us for our podcast dear daughter. Some are funny

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