As the world marks the 20-year anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, there can be no doubting the enormous significance that event had in setting the stage for what we know as the Islamic State.
The rapid overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the ill-thought process of de-Baathification, and Iraq’s collapse into chaos created perfect conditions for a jihadist insurgency.
In the early days of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency, there were a plethora of groups vying for influence, but it was the vicious sectarian vision of IS founding father Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that secured its dominant role.
Decades-old roots
IS roots actually date back to the late 1980s, when Zarqawi had his first foray into jihadism, through a small group: Bayt al-Imam. This path, paved in prison via Zarqawi’s relationship with Jordanian jihadist ideologue Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, saw him travel to Afghanistan, plot attacks at home in Jordan, get re-arrested and imprisoned, only to be released in 1999 to continue his terror activities.
It wasn’t until the early 2000s, on a second trip to Afghanistan, that Zarqawi first made contact with al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Bin Laden was reportedly appalled by Zarqawi’s unsavory behaviours, his tattoos, and his sectarianism, but another al-Qaeda figure Sayf al-Adel was sympathetic and secured Zarqawi a $200,000 donation to establish a training camp on Taliban-owned soil.
Zarqawi and his group, renamed Jund al-Sham and then Jamaat al-Tawhid wal Jihad, later fled the US invasion of Afghanistan and dispersed to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
By late 2002, Zarqawi had embedded within Ansar al-Islam territory in northern Iraq, thanks in part to help from his al-Qaeda ally, Sayf al-Adel. When US forces invaded Iraq in March 2003, one of the first sites hit was a Zarqawi-run training camp in al-Biyara.
Zarqawi’s determination to lead and shape Iraq’s insurgency was immediately clear. In August 2003, Jamaat al-Tawhid wal Jihad conducted a spate of major attacks, killing nearly 150 people outside the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, the UN mission headquarters, and the Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf.
Among those killed were UN Special Representative Sergio Viera de Mello and prominent Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim.
On 19 August 2003 in Baghdad , everything changed, with the killing of Sergio Viera de Mello and other 22 UN staff. In 2020, 475 aid workers were attacked: 108 killed, 242 wounded and 125 kidnapped. Today is the World Humanitarian Day. @unicef @UN https://t.co/GMZuhIQMbN
— Andrea Rossi (@rossiarossi) August 19, 2021
Evolution and the birth of IS
From 2003 on, as Jamaat al-Tawhid wal Jihad evolved into Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen and then al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group methodically escalated its campaign of mass violence, targeting US and allied troops, the international community, and Iraq’s Shiite population.
In late 2006, the group evolved into the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI), marking its first attempt to establish a ‘state.’ Although this first entity was short-lived, defeated by the US-backed Iraqi tribal sahwa movement, in IS eyes, that state has continued to exist ever since. The loss of territory is merely a test from God, not a defeat. The ‘state’ lives on, with or without physical territory.
This first active phase of IS history, from 2003 to 2010, was unquestionably facilitated by the effects of the US-led invasion of Iraq, but it was also empowered by Syria’s al-Assad regime next-door.
