How ISIS was formed

·        Zarqawi visited Afghanistan as a fighter but got pushed towards extremism by the teachings of Maqdisi

·        He returned to Jordan and continued to engage in terrorist activities there.

·        He then entered Iraq in 2004 with his fighters by the support of Assad to fight the US forces.

·        After some time he affiliated to Al Qaeda (to access funds and fighters) and formed Al qaeda of Iraq

·        Initially the Sunnis joined it but later became dissatisfied and organised Anbar Awakening/ Sahwa movement to successfully crush AQI

·        The sectarian divides were increasing due Nouri Al Malicki’s pro shiite Policies. And moreover, after the debaathification of Iraq’s military sunnis were left jobless.

·        After the Sahwa movement, the 20% of the militants were promised jobs in army. The promises were however not kept. The sunnis thus joined AQI in huge numbers and began massacring Shias in huge numbers

·        AQI renamed  itself as Islamic State of Iraq after Zarqawi’s death in 2006.

·        In 2010, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi became its leader and started acting more independent of Al Qaeda

·        In 2011, Baghdadi sent Joulani in Syria to form an Al Qaeda branch there, which later cropped up as Jabhat al Nusra.

·        Later Baghdadi started interfering in Syria to the dislike of Joulani.

·        Finally, in 2013 it broke off from Al Qaeda (leader: Zawahiri) and renamed itself as ISIS.