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DUBAI: On June 29, 2014, Iraqi militant Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the formation of a caliphate, to be known as the “Islamic State,” with himself as its leader. So began Daesh’s reign of terror. 

Also known outside the Arab world as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham) or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), the group initially emerged in 2004 as a local offshoot of Al-Qaeda. It was only after Al-Baghdadi’s declaration in 2014 that it rose to new heights of power and terror, conquering vast swaths of territories in Iraq and Syria. At its peak, Daesh reportedly controlled about a third of Syria and 40 percent of Iraq. 

Its influence extended far beyond the Arab world, with terrorist attacks carried out in its name in several Western countries. They included the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, at the Bataclan theater, restaurants and bars, and close to the Stade de France, that killed 130 people and injured more than 400. It was the bloodiest peacetime attack in the country’s history. 

The threat Daesh poses to the world order is not only physical; perhaps even more dangerously, it is ideological. Several groups and individuals have acted in the group’s name, professing to subscribe to its ideology. 

A gunman opened fire, for example, at a free-speech forum in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Feb. 14, 2015, before shooting several people outside a synagogue and then firing on police. He had sworn allegiance to Daesh leader Al-Baghdadi just days before, in a message posted on Facebook. 

On Aug. 8, 2014, American airstrikes against Daesh began in Iraq. On Sept. 10, 2014, the US announced the formation of an international military coalition to defeat the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, and an air campaign against its sites in Syria started 12 days later. 

As Daesh continued to control Raqqa and other strongholds in Syria, and expanded to at least eight other countries during 2015, more countries joined the coalition and the military attacks on the terror group intensified. 

By Aug. 9, 2017, the coalition had conducted 24,566 strikes, and by the end of that year Daesh had lost 95 percent of its territories, including its two main strongholds: Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria. Although fighting continued in some areas, Syria’s army declared victory over Daesh on Nov. 9, 2017. 

A month later, on Dec. 9, the prime minister of Iraq, Haider Al-Abadi, said that Daesh had been defeated in his country. “I announce from here the end and the failure and the collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood and terrorism, which the terrorist Daesh announced from Mosul,” he said.

In Dec. 2018, US President Donald Trump said Daesh had been defeated and he would withdraw American troops from Syria. It was not until March 2019, however, that the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces took the city of Baghuz, on Syria’s southeastern border with Iraq, finally ending Daesh’s reign of terror in the country.

At the time, Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, the British deputy commander of the Global Coalition Against Daesh, posted a message on X in which he said: “This is a historic moment, but we cannot be complacent. Even without territory, Daesh will continue to pose a threat to the people of Iraq and Syria, as well as to the wider world. The coalition must remain firm in its determination to counter Daesh.” 

The final blow came on Oct. 27, 2019, when the group’s self-proclaimed caliph, Al-Baghdadi, was killed in an overnight raid led by US military forces in Syria. During the operation, he ran into a dead-end tunnel with his children as military dogs chased him down, Trump said. 

Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of the US Central Command, later confirmed that Al-Baghdadi fled into the tunnel and then killed himself and his immediate family by detonating a suicide vest. 

“He crawled into a hole with two small children and blew himself up while his people stayed on the ground,” the general said. Al-Baghdadi’s body was mutilated by the blast but identified through on-site DNA analysis using samples that remained on file from his detention in an Iraqi prison in 2004. 

After the raid, the compound was destroyed, leaving it looking like “a parking lot with large potholes,” McKenzie added. 

The defeat of Daesh and Al-Baghdadi was a somber moment for many. Between 2014 and 2017, the group wreaked havoc across Iraq and Syria, kidnapping, torturing and killing countless local and foreign civilians, soldiers, journalists and aid workers, and destroying historic sites and artifacts. 

Even now, the threat posed by its radical ideology lingers. Since the “defeat” of Daesh, numerous attacks have been carried out by terrorists claiming to be inspired by, or affiliated with, the organization, in countries including Iran, Turkiye, Pakistan, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Niger, the US and Russia. 

On March 22, 2024, for example, terrorists belonging to a group called Islamic State — Khorasan Province attacked a concert hall in Krasnogorsk, Russia, killing at least 150 people and injuring more than 500. 

Disgruntled “lone wolf” social misfits looking for a cause have also latched onto Daesh’s ideology. On Jan. 1 this year, for instance, US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on the streets of New Orleans, killing 14 and injuring many more. He, too, claimed allegiance to Daesh.

• Zaira Lakhpatwala covers the media, advertising and marketing industries for Arab News, with a focus on their impact on culture and business in the region.