Al-Qaeda splinter group ISIS building first Islamic State on region

 Written : Mohamed Abdel fattah

Jun 12, 2014

 

 The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized control of the big northern city of Mosul on Tuesday, seizing the governor's headquarters and rampaging through police stations, military bases and the airport

ISI is an Islamist insurgent group active in both Iraq and Syria that pledged allegiance to al Qaeda in 2004 ,it aim is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria.

What are its origins?

The group was established by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to Brian Fishman,

After he was released from prison in his homeland, Zarqawi commanded fighters in Afghanistan, where he met Osama bin Laden, the founder of al Qaeda and mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

It was established in the early years of the Iraq War and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004. The group was composed of and supported by a variety of insurgent groups, including its predecessor organisation, the Mujahideen Shura Council, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Jaysh al-Fatiheen, Jund al-Sahaba, Katbiyan Ansar Al-Tawhid wal Sunnah, Jeish al-Taiifa al-Mansoura, etc., and other clans whose population profess Sunni Islam.

The group has used several different names since its formation in early 2004 as Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad , after the group expanded into Syria in April 2013, it adopted the name the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), also known as the "Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham" (ISIS). Although the organization has never used the name al-Qa`ida in Iraq to refer to itself, this has been frequently used to describe the group through its various incarnations

The group is thought to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi civilians as well as members of the Iraqi government and its international allies.Across the region, the ISIL positions itself as a Sunni Muslim vanguard against what it sees as domination by Shiite Muslims and Western governments.

Who is its master of Group?

Abu Bakr al Baghdadi , is a successor organisation after Abu Omar al Baghdadi was killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation.

Al Baghdadi was born to a religious family in Samarra in 1971. He studied Islamic history as a student and, according to sympathetic websites, gained a doctorate from Baghdad university in the late 1990s.

It is likely Baghdadi held a religious position in the Sunni community when the US invaded Iraq in 2003.

He formed his own militant group in the Samarra and Diyala areas, where his family was from, before joining al Qaeda in Iraq.

On 2 December 2012, Iraqi officials claimed that they had captured al-Baghdadi in Baghdad following a two-month tracking operation. Officials claimed that they had also seized a list containing the names and locations of other al-Qaeda operatives However, this claim was rejected by the Islamic State of Iraq

How the group fund itself

The extortion the manin source , such as robbing banks and gold shops ,were one revenue stream demanding money from truck drivers and threatening to blow up businesses.

Isis has become the richest terror group ever after looting 500 billion Iraqi dinarsthe equivalent of $429m from Mosul’s central bank, according to the regional governor.

Al Qaeda in Iraq (ISIL) is circulating its own one hundred “Islamic” pound note in western Iraq with a picture of the Twin Towers burning on 9/11 and a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

The new currency is more of a publicity stunt than an actual, working currency that could be used to pay the wages of their fighters. The money would seem to have limited usefulness to ISIL’s men and their families, because it cannot be exchanged or used to purchase goods beyond ISIL’s territorial control.

Sources

CNN

.wikipedia_Bak al-Baghdadi

Wikipedia._StateofIraqand the_Levant