Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; /ˈaɪsəl, ˈaɪsɪl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; /ˈaɪsɪs/),[85] officially known as the Islamic State (IS) and also known by its Arabic-language acronym Daesh (Arabic: داعش‎, romanized: Dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]),[86][87] is a terrorist militant group and a former unrecognised proto-state[88] that follows a fundamentalist, Salafi jihadist doctrine of Sunni Islam.[89][90] ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive,[91] followed by its capture of Mosul[92] and the Sinjar massacre.[93]

The group has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations as well as by many international organisations and individual countries. ISIL is widely known for its videos of beheadings and other types of executions[94] of both soldiers and civilians, including journalists and aid workers, and its destruction of cultural heritage sites.[95] The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for committing human rights abuses, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.[96] ISIL also committed ethnic cleansing on a historic and unprecedented scale in northern Iraq.[97]