Name and symbol
The group is known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Its symbol is a black flag popularly referred to as the “banner of the eagle’’ (Al-Tamimi, 2014). It is majorly famous in the Islamic religion as Prophet Muhammad flew it during some Islamic traditions. The prophet also flew it during the times of war making the ISIS adopt the same flag. The flags are composed of the seal of Muhammad engraved in a white circle.
Other names and classification
Other names of the group include Daesh, an Arabic acronym of the name of the group popularized by the French president Mr Nicholas Holland. It is also referred to as an Islamic state in Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and more recently it is being referred to as Islamic State (IS) to portray it as a global organization. It is a terrorist organization engaging in all manner of terror activities. The United Nations classified it as a terrorist organization.
Leadership
The group is currently headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Before their deaths, he was assisted by Abu Muslim al-Turkamani who was the leader of the Iraqi function and Abu Ali al_Anbari who was the leader of the Syrian function. Advising the leader is a cabinet composed of senior leaders with expertise in different areas all operating under different councils. The most popular council is known as the Shura council and is composed of seven members, namely Abu Muslim al Afari al Turkamani, Abu Ali al Anbari, Abu Arkan al Amiri, Omar al Shishani, Abu Ayman al Iraqi, Abu Muhammad al Adnani, Abu al Athir Amr al Absi. It acts as the guiding council to the supreme leader. Their operations in countries such as Syria and Iraq are usually headed by governors who come from the local communities in areas under their occupation (Loguirato, 2014).
Political Objectives
The main objective of the group is to establish a global caliphate, a world that is ruled by an Islamic religious leader whose power as well as authority will be absolute. The caliphate will be established along the old Ottoman Empire covering all the Muslim nations of the world. The leader will yield both political and religious power over the caliphate. They will establish this by means of a war and terror to achieve their objectives. Currently, they also have ambitious plans to increase their stronghold in Syria and Iraq. In addition, the group wants to replace the existing borders, which are man made, to overcome a crescent, which has been formed by the Shiite Muslims across the Middle East and to take its holy war to America and Europe. There will be a culmination of the war when Muslims unite against the non-believers.
Group affiliations
The terror group has a network of affiliates all over the world. However, their allegiance to the organization cannot be verified due to the murky nature of information that is available online. Some of the notable affiliations include the Boko haram, which operates in Northern Nigeria; In Libya we have the Tripoli province, Barqa province and Fezzan province. The group has affiliations in Yemen going by the name San’a province. In Egypt, we have the Sinai province, which claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian airline, which killed all passengers on board. In Afghanistan it is affiliated with the Khorasan province, the group is mainly concentrated in the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and also in Hemland.
Organization structure
The terror group is organized in that it has one supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is assisted in its governance by the five councils each consisting of different members who are experts in different fields. After the councils, there are officials who are in charge of running the day to day activities of the organization. Assisting the officials are the various community leaders who are in charge of the areas in complete control of the terror organization. The command structure flows from the latter up to the officials. However, unlike other organizations the ISIS command structure is highly de-centralized.
Command structure
The command structure of the group is composed of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who is the supreme leader and the decision maker of the group. He says he is the sole representative of the prophet Muhammad. The structure is also divided into five different councils, each with a role to play. The military council is headed by Abu Ahmad al ‘Alawani and is composed of three members. It is in charge of organizing and controlling of all military operations of the group. The operations include training and deployment to the battlefronts. The Judicial Authority is led by Abu Mohammad al-Ani and is charges of all judicial issues.
It is also vested with the responsibility of spreading the Islamic message associated with the group in terms of preaching and recruitment (Leggiero, 2015). The defense, intelligence, and Security Council. Abu Bakr al Anbari heads this council. Its main function is to provide security for the group leaders, it implements all judicial orders, including court decisions, and it is in charge for collection of intelligence to be used by the group. All the councils report to the supreme leader and are independent of one another in terms of functions.
History of the organization
ISIS as a group was established in different phases. It started out as an organization of jihad and monotheism founded by Abu Musab al Zarqawi in 1999. The group immediately pledged its allegiance to Al Qaeda and was again renamed, the organization of jihad base in mesopotamia (Iraq). Immediately after the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, many of the government workers in both the military and civil service were rendered jobless. This created a new source of recruits for the group who were not only oppressed by the American government but also the new Shiite government. An insurgency broke out and Al-zarqawi the leader was killed.
Many of the insurgent factions under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi merged to form the Islamic state of Iraq. After war broke out in Syria the group extended its mandate to Syria and became the ISIS (Shane & Hubbard, 2014). The organization chart is composed of the leader who is strongly referred to as the Caliph. The different councils who all play different functions for the group assist him. Under the councils are officials who are in charge of the daily running of the organization. The officials work with different local leaders to enforce the Caliph’s rule.
Source of funding
The organization is not directly funded by individuals, but derives its income from a number of activities. Firstly, it is the sale of oil mainly coming from Iraq. Iraq being a top oil producer and most of the regions being occupied by the terror organization. There is a higher supply of energy reserves that are being sold by the group especially in the black market. The group has also been known to have wealthy private donors who either believe in their cause or are directly benefiting from the war being waged by the group. Others are simply sympathizers of the group.
The group also derives revenue from the taxes and levies that they impose on the captured population. Since they are the government in these areas that they control they impose their rule in terms of taxes and other levies that are chargeable by a legitimate government. The group has been known to seize bank accounts and assets, especially in areas it has captured or occupies mainly belonging to the enemies of the organization.
It also derives revenues from criminal activities such as kidnappings, smuggling of contraband products across the Middle East and sale of antiques that have been excavated from ancient places. All these find their way in black markets in Europe, Asia, or America using old age smuggling routes. There have also been cases of the group fundraising through the available communication networks and channels such as social media.
Budget
The actual budget of the group is not known, but recent figures show the group derives almost $ 6 million in a day from its illegal activities. It has also been known to derive almost $40 million dollars from the sale of crude oil, mostly coming from Iraq, where it has a strong foothold with no strong government in place. Some of the group external supporters include donors who are sympathetic to their cause and Muslim expatriates who believe in the message that they are spreading. The Muslim caliphate is a very strong message, especially to the Sunni Muslims who are mostly the ISIS sympathizers.
Strength, Recruitment and weapons
The ISIS compared to its previous predecessors or terrorist organizations is much stronger with the presence of formal military strategies which are being used alongside guerilla techniques associated with the insurgents. Its strength lies in that its leadership structure is decentralized hence regional leaders enjoy command enabling the group to be quick in aggravating aggression. In addition, most of the group commanders are former army officers in the Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein and also insurgents with a wealth of experience. In addition, the group foot soldiers are young men probably under 30 years of age and are drawn from foreign countries there making them very agile in battle. In addition, the group has a wide network of supporters in the regions it operates in. There have been reported cases of even European fighters being in the battle fighting alongside the insurgents.
In terms of equipment, it has drones, which are commandeered and are used in the gathering intelligence for the group, a new phenomena being experienced by governments as threats of insurgent groups continues to loom. The group has also advanced military vehicles and artillery. The group is also reported to be equipped with chemical weapons, including rockets that are normally filled with chlorine and mustard gas. All these chemical weapons are very highly simple to manufacture. The group recruits many of its members through social media and other forms of communication channels. It is through social media channels such as twitter that the group pushes its agenda and its message to the masses (Farwell, 2014).
Key events
Some of the major attacks carried out by the group include the bombings that occurred in Brussels. There were two explosions near the country’s international airport and another one occurred at a subway just within the city. This demonstrated the organization’s ability to coordinate and launch attacks in western nations. In October the same year the ISIS downed an airline carrying passengers. The plane belonged to Russia and ended up killing all the 224 passengers and crew on board. The same month an assault occurred in Paris resulting in the death of more than 100 people. The group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The group message has also inspired people to carry out attacks against westerners. An example is in December in San Bernardino when a couple posted on Facebook their allegiance to ISIS and ended up killing 14 people in a conference hall. There were no clear indications that they were directed by ISIS to conduct the attack, but rather by the group instructions on Muslims to take up Jihad (Cronin, 2015). In addition, in Turkey, in the capital Istanbul an Islamic State member of Turkish descent launched a suicide bombing attack, killing 3 Israelis and one Iranian and injuring dozens of others.
Projected events
The future objective of the group is to establish a global caliphate especially in regions which are deemed to be occupied by Muslim nationals or the unification of the whole of the Arab world. They want to establish a world that is ruled by an Islamic religious leader whose power will be absolute (Peresin&Cervone, 2015). The current leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is deemed to be the caliph and acts as the official prophet of Muslims after Muhammed.
The caliphate will be established along the old Ottoman Empire covering all the Muslim nations of the world. The leader will yield both political and religious power over the caliphate. They will establish this by means of a war and terror to achieve their objectives. They also have ambitious plans to increase their stronghold in Syria and Iraq. In addition, the group wants to replace the existing borders, which are man made, to overcome a crescent, which has been formed by the Shiite Muslims across the Middle East and to take its holy war to America and Europe.
References
Farwell, J. P. (2014). The media strategy of ISIS. Survival, 56(6), 49-55.
Loguirato, B. (2014). US releases mock ISIS recruitment video that shows jihadist group blowing up mosques, crucifying Muslims. The National Post.
Leggiero, K. (2015). Countering ISIS Recruitment in Western Nations. Journal of Political Risk, 3(1).
Al-Tamimi, A. J. (2014). The dawn of the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham. Current Trends in Islamist Ideology, 16, 5.
Cronin, A. K. (2015). ISIS Is Not a Terrorist Group: Why Counterterrorism Won’t Stop the Latest Jihadist Threat. Foreign Aff., 94, 87.
Peresin, A., & Cervone, A. (2015). The Western muhajirat of ISIS. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 38(7), 495-509.
Shane, S., & Hubbard, B. (2014). ISIS displaying a deft command of varied media. New York Times, 30.