(CNN) -- Here's a look at Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Facts:
Started as an al Qaeda splinter group.
Also known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Islamic State (IS).
The aim of ISIS is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria.
ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions,
crucifixions and other acts. It has taken over large swaths of northern and western Iraq.
The group currently controls hundreds of square miles. It ignores international borders and has a
presence from Syria's Mediterranean coast to south of Baghdad. It rules by Sharia law.
ISIS's initial strategy for revenue was through extortion and robbery. Recently, al-Baghdadi's
strategy shifted to generating resources through large-scale attacks aimed at capturing and
holding territory.
Unable to serve under the new Iraq government after Saddam Hussein's military was disbanded,
former Iraqi soldiers became ISIS fighters, according to Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges.
Leader:
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Very little is known about al-Baghdadi, but a biography posted on
jihadist websites in 2013 said he earned a doctorate in Islamic studies from a university in
Baghdad.
He formed the militant group in Salaheddin and Diyala provinces north of the Iraqi capital before
joining al Qaeda in Iraq.
Al-Baghdadi was detained for four years in Camp Bucca, which was a U.S.-run prison in
southern Iraq. He was released in 2009.
After ISIS declared the creation of the so-called "Islamic State," he began using the name AlKhalifah Ibrahim, and now goes by that name with his followers.
Timeline:
2004 - Abu Musab al-Zarqawi establishes al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).
2006 - Under al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda in Iraq tries to ignite a sectarian war against the majority Shia
community.
June 7, 2006 - Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Abu Ayyub al-Masri, also known as Abu
Hamza al-Muhajer, takes his place as leader of AQI.

October 2006 - AQI leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri announces the creation of Islamic State in Iraq
(ISI), and establishes Abu Omar al-Baghdadi as its leader.
April 2010 - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes leader of ISI after Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu
Ayyub al-Masri are killed in a joint U.S.-Iraqi operation.
April 8, 2013 - ISI declares its absorption of an al Qaeda-backed militant group in Syria, Jabhat
al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front. Al-Baghdadi says that his group will now be known
as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
April 2013 - Al-Nusra Front leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani rejects ISIS's attempt to merge
with the group.
February 3, 2014 - Al Qaeda renounces ties to ISIS after months of infighting between al-Nusra
Front and ISIS.
May 2014 - ISIS kidnaps more than 140 Kurdish schoolboys in Syria, forcing them to take
lessons in radical Islamic theology.
June 9, 2014 - Monday night into Tuesday, militants seize Mosul's airport, its TV stations and
the governor's office. ISIS frees up to 1,000 prisoners.
June 10, 2014 - ISIS takes control of Mosul.
June 11, 2014 - ISIS takes control of Tikrit.
June 21, 2014 - ISIS takes control of Al-Qaim, a town on the border with Syria, as well as three
other Iraqi towns.
June 28, 2014 - Iraqi Kurdistan restricts border crossings into the region for refugees fleeing the
fighting.
June 29, 2014 - ISIS announces the creation of a caliphate (Islamic state) that erases all state
borders, making al-Baghdadi the self-declared authority over the world's estimated 1.5 billion
Muslims. The group also announces a name change to the Islamic State (IS).
June 30, 2014 - The United Nations announces that an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis have been
forced from their homes.
June 30, 2014 - The Pentagon announces the United States is sending an additional 300 troops to
Iraq, bringing the total U.S. forces in Iraq to nearly 800. Troops and military advisers sent to Iraq
are there to add security to the U.S. Embassy and the airport in Baghdad, and to provide support
to Iraqi security forces.
July 2014 - In Syria, all the cities between Deir Ezzor city and the Iraq border have fallen to ISIS,
says Omar Abu Leila, a spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

July 3, 2014 - ISIS takes control of a major Syrian oil field, al-Omar. It is the country's largest
oil field and can produce 75,000 barrels of oil daily.
July 17, 2014 - In Syria's Homs province, ISIS claims to have killed 270 people after storming
and seizing the Shaer gas field.
July 24, 2014 - ISIS militants blow up Jonah's tomb, a holy site in Mosul.
August 8, 2014 - Two U.S. F/A-18 jet fighters bomb artillery of Sunni Islamic extremists in Iraq.
President Barack Obama has authorized "targeted airstrikes" if needed to protect U.S. personnel
from fighters with ISIS. The U.S. military also could use airstrikes to prevent what officials warn
could be a genocide of minority groups by the ISIS fighters.
August 19, 2014 - In a video posted on YouTube, U.S. journalist James Foley, missing in Syria
since 2012, is decapitated by ISIS militants. The militants then threaten the life of another
captured U.S. journalist, believed to be Steven Sotloff.
September 2, 2014 - ISIS releases a video showing the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven
Sotloff. Sotloff's apparent executioner speaks in what sounds like the same British accent as the
man who purportedly killed Foley. He's dressed identically in both videos, head to toe in black,
with a face mask and combat boots. He appears to be of similar build and height. He waves a
knife in his left hand, as did the militant in the video of Foley's death.
September 11, 2014 - The CIA announces that the number of people fighting for ISIS may be
more than three times the previous estimates. Analysts and U.S. officials initially estimated there
were as many as 10,000 fighters, but now ISIS can "muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters
across Iraq and Syria," a CIA spokesman tells CNN.
September 13, 2014 - ISIS militants post video on a website associated with the group, showing
the apparent execution of British aid worker David Haines. This makes him the third Western
captive to be killed by the Islamist extremist group in recent weeks. ISIS directs a statement at
British Prime Minister David Cameron, threatening more destruction if Britian continues its "evil
alliance with America." At the end of the video, the executioner threatens the life of Alan
Henning, another British citizen held captive. The executioner appears to be the same one who
killed both Steven Sotloff and James Foley.
September 23, 2014 - The United States carries out airstrikes against ISIS. The bombing is
focused on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, a city in northern Syria.
October 3, 2014 - ISIS releases a video showing the apparent beheading of hostage Alan
Henning. It blames the killing on the UK for joining the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIS
in Iraq and Syria. In the same video, the group threatens the life of American aid worker Peter
Kassig, also known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig.
November 3, 2014 - The Iraqi government announces ISIS militants have killed 322 members of
the Albu Minr tribe in a recent series of executions. According to Sheikh Nabil Al-Ga'oud, a

leader in the Albu Minr tribe, the latest of these incidents occurred November 1, in which 75
members of the tribe were killed near the town of Hit.