Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

"HOLY SHIT!!! What is that?! Some kinda super-ass terrorist organization?! Man, it's about to get all Baghdad and stuff, and I think that truly is... the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Otherwise known as the ISIS! What can we do? When will this terrorist wave end? How will we defeat the evil? Why am I asking you all these questions? America, where are you?"

--Su Ji-Hoon, The Wrath of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, IPA: /ˈaɪsəl/), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS /ˈaɪsɪs/), Islamic State (IS) and by its Arabic language acronym Daesh (Arabic: داعش‎ Dāʿish, IPA: [ˈdaːʕɪʃ]), is a Salafi jihadist terrorist organisation and former unrecognized proto-state that follows a fundamentalist, Wahhabi, and heterodox doctrine of Sunni Islam. ISIL gained global prominence in early 2014 when it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre.