TIMELINE FOR RADICAL ISLAM, AL QAEDA AND ISIS OR 'ISLAMIC STATE' from 630-2015 AD
630- Battle of Hunayn, Mohammed defeats the Hawazin Bedouins near Mecca. One of his followers, Huruqus ibn Zuhair, criticizes Mohammed for offering booty in return for converting to Islam. Mohammed predicts that he will betray Islam.
The Rashidun Caliphate (632-661): Ali and Abu Bakr: the split between Shia and Sunni.
The Prophet Muhammed surrounded by the four Rashidun Caliph's
The First Caliph- Abu Bakr 632-634
-632- 3 months before Mohammed's death, on his last pilgrimmage to mecca, Shiites believe that he stopped his caravan by a pond and said, "Do I not have more to say to you than all the others?" Followers say 'yes'. Then he says, "All those whom I command shall also be commanded by Ali."
-but Abu Bakr, Mohammed's companion had been asked by the prophet to lead the prayers before his death, making him virtual leader.
-but after Mohammed's death in 632- many refuse to recongize Ali.
-Though Ali had been a close deputy and a military commander, Abu Bakr (632-634) became the Caliph or successor.
-637- Arab Muslims take Mesopotamia from the Persian Sassinids.
The Second Caliph- Omar 634-644
-Ali accepted the first two Caliphs Bakr and Omar
The Third Caliph- Osman- 644-656
-656- assassination of third caliph- Osman by Egyptian rebels along with the the son of Omar. Ali appointed to Caliphate by the ruling tribe, the Quraysh. He decided not to punish the rebels severely. He was opposed by Aisha, wife of Muhammed and daughter of Abu Bakr who wanted rebels punished.
The Fourth Caliph, Ali- 656-661
661- Kufa- assassination of Ali ibn Abi Talib- first imam- rightful successor to Mohammed. Killed by Kharijite extremists in the mosque of Kufa. (Shia = partisans of Ali). Shiites see this act as a rejection of the true succession by the Muslim majority. Buried at Najaf. Ali has since passed his own infallibility on to a series of Imams.
Umayyad Caliphate- 661-750.
661- Muawiyah is crowned head of the Muslim Empire in Jerusalem. He establishes the Umayyad Caliphate.
"...according to the Famous Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, Kharijites were the first to use excommunication processes against the rest of the Muslim community. Committing sin is viewed by Kharijites as a justifiable reason to excommunicate any Muslim who is not in accordance with their framework of interpreting major Islamic texts. They then find it lawful for them to fight supposed Muslim sinners and kill them." -Morocco World News, December 3, 2014.
683- " In the period of civil war (fitnah) following the death of the caliph Yazīd I (683), the Khārijites were the source of serious disruptions within the Umayyad domain and in Arabia. Subdued through the intensive campaigning of al-Ḥajjāj, the Khārijites did not stir again until the collapse of the Umayyads, and then their two major rebellions, in Iraq and Arabia, ended in defeat." - Encyclopedia Britannica on line.
Hanbal
780-855- Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, sounder of the Hanbali code of Sharia law. He holds that a decision in Sharia must be referred directly to the Quran and the sunna- not to the legal framework that had grown up around them. In other words, he held that the law itself had already been written in the words of the Quran.
The Hanbali Reform Movement of early Arabia.
780-855- Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, sounder of the Hanbali code of Sharia law. He holds that a decision in Sharia must be referred directly to the Quran and the sunna- not to the legal framework that had grown up around them. In other words, he held that the law itself had already been written in the words of the Quran.
-in subsequent centuries, the Hanbali Code loses strength everywhere except at Najd in central Arabia.
1042-1147-North Africa and Spain
Almoravids impose Islamic rule over an area comprising modern Morocco, Mauretainia, northern Mali, western Algeria and Spain.
Ibn Taimiya Revives the Hanbali Code in the Middle Ages.
1300- (crica) in a revival, Ahmad Ibn Taimiya upholds the Hanbali Code as a means of reform and of condemning the cults of tombs and saints, and urging the continual interpretation (itijihad) of law in light of the Quran. He sees the Shia, with all their excess ritual, as the enemy within. He upheld the Sunni Caliphs over the Shia Imams because be believed that seizing and weilding secular power was all that mattered in a leader- and the Caliphs had done that most effecrively.
1328- death of Ibn Taimiya.
1250-1517- The Mameluke Caliphs of Cairo adopt the Hanbali Code.
The Wahhabi Movement of the 18th Century.
1703- Abdul al-Wahhab is born at Najd, a main centre of Hanbali Islam in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula.
1725 (circa) -Al-Wahhab (1703-1787) founds Muwahidun (unitarian) movement- an attempt to purify Islam of medieval superstition, to stop the translation of Sharia into jurisprudence and to get rid of the cult of saints. The Muwahidun follow the Hanbali school as taught by Tarq al Din ibn Taimiya (qv). Wahhab's oponnents call his followers 'Wahhabis', the name that stuck.
-Wahhab makes attendance at public prayer obligatory, forbids the building of minarets,
Ibn Saud, Wahhabism and the Origins of the House of Saud
-having failed to spread his movement, Al Wahhab allies himself with a tribal chieftain, Mohammed Ib Saud.
1726-65- Mohammed Ibn Saud, ruler of the Diraiya Emirate embraces Wahhabism, has his subjects convert on pain of death.
1745- Muhammad Ibn Saud becomes ruler of Najd, the central plateau and oasis region of Arania, founds the House of Saud.
-in alliance with followers of Saud, Wahabbis mount a campaign against idolatry, corruption and adultery. On the authority of the Hadith, they ban dancing, music and poetry, silk, gold, ornaments and jewelery.
1766-1803- Mohammed's son, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, continues to uphold Wahhabism.
1773- Abdul Aziz ibn Saud takes Riyadh.
1802- in a campaign against the Shia, the Wahhabis attack the Shia holy city of Karbala.
1810- the Whhabi Ibn Sauds ruule most of Arabia.
1803-1814 Saud Ibn Abdul Aziz of the House of Saud tries to spread Wahhabism to the frontiers of Syria and Iraq.
The Ottoman Sultan sends the Egyptian Pasha to Crush Wahhabism.
-the Ottoman Sultan is outrages by what he sees as descecration of the holy pplaces of Arabi by the Sauds and their Wahhabism.
1814-18- Sent by hte sultan, Muhammad Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, crushes the Wahhabist movement and executes Abdullah Ibn Saud.
Salafism
1838-97- Jamal al-din Afghani. Helps develop Salafism- an Islamic ideology based on the example of the salaf- the ancestors of early Islam. He promotes the Pan-Islam movement in an attempt to revive a mythical 'pure' Islam free of ethnic and political rivalries.
1849-1905- Muhammad Abdu- a follower of Afghani (b. 1838) emphasized the influence of the Salaf on Sharia law.
1865-1935- Muhammad Rashid Rida, follower of Abdu (b. 1849) researched what Mohammed and 'the pious ancestors' had done and taught so that it could be applied to contemporary conditions. He preferred the Salaf to the four Sunni legal schools.
19th century in Mali-
-French colonial advance provokes the Fula and Toucouleur (Tukolor ) jihads which spread across region. Various theocratic states formed.
Fall and Revival of Wahhabism
1881- House of Saud expelled from the Riyadh region. But it revivies under Abdul Rahman Ibn Al Saud and spreads Wahhabism
1891- Abdul Rahman Ibn Al Saud of the House of Saud is overthrown at Diraiya by the House Of Rashid which has Ottoman backing.
-the Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith movements rise in northern India- in an attempt to rally and purify Islam against British and western colonial forces. Both are opposed to the Shia.
1894- Mali- Tuareg rebels declare a jihad against the French following their occupation of the city of Tombouctou in January
1902 -Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman al Saud re-conquers the Najd from the Ottomans, reviviing Wahhabism militarily and politically through the Ikhwan Wahhabist movement. Wahabbis mount new attacks on hypocrites, laxity, non-blievers. The criteria for belief is strict adherecne to the Sharia.
1905-6- Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdul Rahman takes east central Arabia.
1913- Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, commander of the Whhabist Ikhwan army invades the Shia region of Al-Hasa and attempts to impose Wahhabism.
Mohammed Qutb
1906-66- Sayyid Mohammed Qutb. Muslim ideologue. Born in Asyut, Egypt. Trained as a teacher in Cairo.
1920s- Salafis teach that since Mohammed was chosen by the community, leadership of Islam cannot be hereditary.
1925- Ibn Saud's Ikhwan Wahhabists destroy the Jannat al Baghi cemetery in Medina, a Shia holy place where the daughter of the Prophet and the 3nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Shia imams are buried.
1926- The Ikhwan resorts to the systematic killing of Shia.
1927- May 20- British lay down treaty of Jeddah giving the Hijaz and Jajd to Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud. The Ikhwan, sends a Wahhabi recolt against Ibn Saud for using telephone,s radios, cars etc.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi Domestication of Wahhabism.
1928- Muslim Brotherhood founded by Hassan al Banna in Egypt for moral and social reform.
1930s- House of Saud becomes rich on oil wealth, moderates its belief in Wahhabism; the pogroms against the Shia are stopped; instead the Shia suffer discrimination and marginalization.
1932- the vast desert region whose heart is the Najd bcomes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
-in Mecca, the Supreme Religious Council continues to be the official head of Wahabbism.
1939- Muslim brother hood becomes a political movement in response to the Arab uprising against the British in Palestine (1936) and Egyptian protest against the the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty (1936). The brotherhood declares that the Quran and the Hadith are sufficient as a social political code for any time and place.
1940- the Muslim brotherhood has 500 branches each with a mosque and social services.
1948- Qutb is sent to university in Colorado, USA by his ministry. He is appalled at what he sees as America's decadence and depravity.
1948-49- members of the Muslim Brotherhood fight in the Palestine War, recruiting Egyptian officers and gaining military experience. The Brotherhood turns against Egypt which is blames for the 1948-49 war.
1948- Egypt declares martial law and bans the Brotherhood.
-Egyptian premier, Fahmi Nokrashi Pasha, is assassinated by the Brotherhood.
1949- Hassan a Banna, leader of the Egyptian Brotherhood is assassinated.
1950- with the lifting of martial law, the Brotherhood enters mainstream Egyptian politics.
1951- Qutb returns to Egypt but his anti-American views get him expelled from the education ministry. He joins the Muslim Brootherhood. In his writings he says that America should be placed under a sentence of death.
1952- the Brotherhood supports Egypt in rejecting the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and participates in the Cairo riots.
1952- the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) overthrows the regime in Egypt.
Egypt bans the Muslim Brotherhood.
1954- Egypt's RCC bans the Muslim Brotherhood. Qutb and other members are held in a concentration camp. He writes his defining work, Maalim Fi Al Tariq- "Signposts on the Road"- which divides all social systems into "The Order of Islam" and "The Order of Ignorance." The book remains a text book for radical Islam.
23rd Oct.- after Brotherhood members attempt to assassinate President Nasser, the plotters are hanged, many are imprisoned or driven into exile in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
1957- birth of Osama Bin laden, son of a bricklayer from South Yemen. Bin Laden's father settles in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and becomes a wealthy construction magnate.
Qutb Becomes Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1964- Qutb and cohorts are released from detainment in Egypt. "Signposts on the Road" is smuggled out of Egypt. Though he is non-violent, the Muslim Brotherhood promotes him into the leadership to avenge their persecution in Egypt.
-Nasser tries to include the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab Socialist Union to combat Communism.
-repeated attempts by the Brotherhood to assassinate Nasser.
1966-Sayyid Muhammed Qutb is put on trial in Egypt. He states that the nations of the Middle East are a western fabrication and that actually Islam has no nations, only a Community of Believers.
-Sayyid Muhammed Qutb and other Brotherhood leaders are executed.
Muslim Brotherhood gains from 1967 War with Israel.
1967- Egypt decisively defeated in war with Israel.
1968- popular feeling that Egypt had received divine retribution for Arab Socialism causes Nasser to grant a general amnesty to the Muslim Brotherhood.
-new Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, attempts to integrate the Brotherhood into the mainstrem.
1975 (circa) Saalafis active in Kuwait where they want a republican, democratic regime.
Egypt's Sadat Bans the Muslim Brotherhood causing it to Radicalize.
1976- fearing the expanding power of the Brotherhood, President Sadat bans it from Egyptian elections. 15 Brotherhood members are elected as members of other parties causing a radical wing to split off in protest.
-the Muslim Brotherhood radicalizes and turns against Sadat's modernization and pro-Israel and pro-West policies.
Uprising against Saudis; beginning of Careers of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri.
1978- Ayman Zawahiri graduates as as a surgeon from Cairo's University's medical school.
-Bin Laden graduates with a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.
1979- armed uprising against rulers of Saudi Arabia at the Grand Mosque- assisted by Salafis from Kuwait. The young engineering graduate, Bin laden, regards them as true Muslims. Salafis have since become active in Kuwait politics.
1979- Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Begin sign the Egyptian-Istaeli peace Treaty. But his new peace costs Egypt membership in the Arab League.
-due to the unpopularity of the treaty at home, Sadat becomes increasingly autocratic.
Roots of the Al Nusra Front.
1980- Abu Musab al Sur (aka Mustafa Setmariam Nasar and the intellectual godfather of Al Nusra) joins the Combatant Vanguard organization, a radical offshoot of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood which is at the forefront in the Islamic uprising in Hama, Syria.
Abdullah Azzam's 'Bureau of Service' in Pakistan for Afghan Jihad- antecedent to Al Qaeda.
1980- Abdullah Azzam founds Maktab al Khidmat (Bureau of Service) in Peshawar, Pakistan.
-Pakistani ISI and American CIA camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border join in training non-Afhgan Mujehadeen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. They use US army training manuals translated into Urdu, Arabic and Persian, stressing nationalism and Islam.
-Bin Laden visits Peshawar and lobbies family and friends to support the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan.
-Osama Bin Laden goes back to Saudi Arabia, raises large sums from family connections and returns to Pakistan with members of the family business, the Saudi Binlandin Group.
Bin laden leads non-Afghan Mujehadeen in Afghan war against the Soviets.
-Bin laden becomes leader of the non-Afghan Mujehadeen, working alongside the CIA and the ISI.
1980s- Somalia fights Islamic fundamentalists in its north and the Patriotic Front in the south.
Zawahiri arrested in Assassination of Sadat.
1981- Oct 6- a radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood assassinates President Sadat. Ayman al Zawahiri is among those jailed in the plot.
Al Sur- the Grandfather of Al Nusra.
1982- Al Sur joins in the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood at Hama which is crushed by Syrian President Hafez al Assad, killing tens of thousands.
1984- Egyptian President Mubarak maintains elections ban on Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood members get elected as members of the Neo-Wafd party.
-the Muslim Brotherhood, uses highly educated members to dominate syndicates of lawyers, doctors, journalists and engineers.
-Zawahiri is released from prison in Egypt.
Bin Laden Works for Pak-Afghan Bureau of Service.
-in Pakistan, Bin Laden comes under the influence of Abdulla Azzam, head of the jihadi Bureau of Service. He vets non-Afghan volunteers, supervises road construction and refurbishing caves for storage. He also engages in guerilla sorties.
1986- Bureau of Service sets up a branch in the US at the farooq Mosque in Brooklyn.
-Bin laden oversees construction of a sophsiticated tunnel complex for storage, supplies and refuge at Khost on the Afghan-Pakistan border. The complex is near Tora Bora.
Zawahiri joins the Anti-Soviet Afghan Struggle.
-Zawahiri travels to Pakistan to join the medical corps of the Mujehadeen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. He is stationed in peshawar where he sets up a branch of Islamic Jihad.
1987- The Muslim Brotherhood gains singificant power in the Egyptian parliament by allying itself with socialist parties. Brotherhood deputies demand an end to the Israeli-Egyptian treaty, to all ties with the United States and the application of Sharia law.
1988- Bin Laden and Azzam make 'MAK' or The Service Bureau offical. Bin Laden wants to advance non-military operations world-wide- while Azzam prefers a military strategy.
Al Qaeda is new name for the Service Bureau upon murder of Azzam and victory in Afghanistan.
1989- February- Bin Laden declares withdrawal of Soviets from Afghanistan a victory for the Jihad.
November- Azzam assassinated; Pakistan's ISI is a suspect. Bin Laden, assisted by Muhammad Atef and Abu Ubaidah al Banshiri, takes over, renaming Maktab al Khidmat 'Al Qaeda'- 'The Base', with a plan to expand the Soviet Jihad into an international Jihad from headquarters in Peshawar. The prime target is US interests world-wide with Al Qaeda launching its own attacks or sponsoring similar outfits to attack Al Qaeda targets.
Al Mohammed, trained as a US commando at Fort Bragg, leaves the US and joins Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and pakistan.
Bin Laden abandons Afghan Civil war for Saudi Arabia.
-Bin Laden resturns to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, discouraged by the inter-ethnic Afghan civil war.
1990- When Iraq invades Kuwait, Bin Laden offers to set up a citizen militia to defend Saudi Arabia but the kingdom rejects his offer.
Bin Laden Repudiates US bases in Saudi Arabia for First Gulf War.
1991 -the US responds to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait by setting up military bases to protect Saudi Arabia's oil fields at Hama. Bin Laden swears to avenge what he sees as US violation and occupation of Saudi Arabia.
-Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood supports Saddam Hussein.
Bin Laden Sets up Al Qaeda in Sudan; active also in Mogadishu and the Balkans.
1991-1996- Bin Laden, based in Sudan, sets up a series of corporate entities, running Al Qaeda as if it were a corporation. It is ruled by a Shura or Council of Twelve, with four executive committees: military (commanded by Muhammed Atef) business, Islamic Studies , Media, and Public Relations.
-Al Qaeda begins launching international operations from Sudan.
1992-93- Bin Laden intervenes in civil war in Somalia. His lieuenant, Atef, trains Somai tribes opposed to UN intervention.
Al Qaeda appears in Somalia in midst of clan war.
1992-3- as part of Osama Bin Laden’s Sudan-based al Qaeda support for Somali Muslims, 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atef trains Somali tribal guerillas opposed to UN intervention
-Ban Laden accused by US of complicity in American defeat in Mogadishu.
-the Deobandi movement, originally a Sunni anti-colonial force born in British India, has spread from Bagladesh to Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Deobandi teaching leads to the formation if the Taliban.
1993- Al Qaeda has about 1,000 members, mostly Afghan veteran Jihadis.
It supports 5,000 Arab fighters defending Muslims in the Balkans during the Bosnian Civil War (1992-1995)
First World Trade Centre Attack Fails. Al Qaeda spreads globally.
-Al Qaeda-linked bomb blast at World Trade Centre, New York.
-Al Qaeda has agents in Albania, Britain, Pakistan, Holland, Malasia, Lebanon, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Enirates.
-Al Qaeda forms loose associations with similar outfits in Ageria, Chechnya, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, Lebanon, Libya, the Phulippines, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Yemen, Syria and Tunisia.
1994- Al Zawahiri joins Bin Laden in Khartoum Sudan, becomes his mentor.
-Saudi government revokes Bin Laden's citizenship and freezes his assets of $20-25 million
-attempt on Bin Laden's life. He founds the Committee for Advice and Reform. The CAR is intended to promote preaceful reform in Saudi Arabia.
1995- finally allowed to campaign openly in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood runs 150 candidates, all of whom lose.
-Islamabad- truck bombing kills 18- Egypt holds Zawahiri responsible.
-CIA sets up a "Bin Laden station".
Bin Laden Expelled from Sudan. Zawahiri heads Egyptian wing of Al Qaeda.
-1996- Sudan expels Bin Laden for his verbal attacks on the king of Saudi Arabia and puts him under surveillance in order that Sudan be removed from the U.S. list of terror states.
-botched Egyptian operations by the EIJ (Egyptian islamic Jihad, led by Ayman al Zawahiri), the Egyptian wing of Al Qaeda, get the EIJ expelled from Sudan.
Al Qaeda Returns to Afghanistan. Victorious Taliban Gives protection to Al Qaeda.
1996- Bin Laden moves Al Qaeda headquarters from Somalia to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, though Jalalabad is still outside Taliban control.
-Shalh Kaled first suggests an attack on New York's World Trade towers to Bin Laden.
Sept. -- Taliban takes Kabul and Jalalbad in civil war. Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, gives protection and freedom of action to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda after Bin Laden swears loyalty; but also to accommodate, former anti-Soviet Jihadists who had been expelled from their home countries and unemployed Jihadists from the recent Bosnian, Kashmir and Chechen wars. A veteran Al Qaeda unit fights alongside the Taliban.
-Al Qaeda's 3,000 fighters are known as the Taliban's 55th Brigade. Al Qaeda has 45,000 adherents in 60 countries.
-Al Qaeda announces plans to expel foreigners from Islamic lands.
1997- Zawahiri joins Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda Bombs US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam.
1998- August- Al Qaeda bombs US embassies inNairobi and Dar As Salaam, killing 227.
-Wshington places Bin Laden on its 10 most wanted list with a $5 million rewaerd on his head. and demands the Taliban hand him over. Mullah Omae refuses.
Union Of Islamic Courts in Somalia.
2000- the Union of Islamic Courts. Is founded in Somalia.
Bin Laden Releases Fatwa against Americans and Jews.
1999: Jordanian Sunni militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi flees his country after a failed hotel bombing and moves his group, known then as Tawhid and Jihad, to Afghanistan.
-Bin Laden releases a Fatwa calling for attacks on US citizens. Zawahiri joins his Islamic Jihad with Bin Laden's World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews. Zawahiri is in charge of ideology. Charter members are Abu Yasser Rafia Ahmad Taha, Mir Hamza and Faz ul Rahman. Among ists grievances are the UN sanctions against Iraq, US military bases in Saudi Arabia, the existence of Israel and its domination of the Palestinians. Its aims are the killing of any American or Israeli, the liberation of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Mosque in Mecca andto overthrow all the regimes in Muslim countries that supported western interests.
-Nov. 4- a US grand jury returns a 238 count indictment for murder and other charges against Bin Laden and Zawahiri.
-Bin Laden gives the go-ahead to Sheikh Khaled to organize abd lauch the attack on the WTC in New York.
1999- 20 members of the Muslim Brotherhood arrested for plotting to overthrow the government and ifiltrating professional syndicates.
-9/11 plans finalized by the Al Qaeda military committee.
Early Stages of 9/11 Attacks.
-a group of highly educated, disciplined Islamists living in Hamburg and with experience of the West travel to to Afhganistan to meet Bin Laden to plan the attack on the the WTC.
Syrian forerunners to Al Nusra.
2000 -Syrian Jihadists fighting alongside Al Qaeda leader Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda Bombs USS Cole in Yemen.
2000- October- Al Qaeda bombs the USS Cole, docked in Aden, Yemen. US holds Bin Laden responsible.
-the Muslim Brotherhood wins 17 seats in the Egyptian parliament.
Dec. -the US has the UN Security Council demand that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden on pain of an arms embargo on Afghanistan. Mullah Omar refuses.
2001- Abu Mohammed Jolani (Golani) (later to lead Al Nusra) under the command of Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al Zawahiri.
2001- Feb.- public trial in US of 4 conspirators in bombing of Kenyan and Ethiopian embassies enlarges Bin Laden's following in the Muslim World.
-Al Qaeda 9/11 hijackers begin arriving in the US
-the hijack leader, Mohammed Atta meets Binalshibh in Spain to work out final details of WTC attack.
Al Qaeda Executes 9/11 Attack on World Trade Towers.
2001- Sept 11- Al Qaeda operatives fly two passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade centre in Manhattan, killing about 3,000. A third plane is crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth crashes in a field in Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.
-the US names Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri as conspirators in the 9/11 plots. In vain, the US demands that Mullah Omar hand over Bin Laden.
2001- Sept-- 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on New York-: President Musharaff Sides with Washington against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, under severe pressure from Assistant Secretary of State Armitage. This, however, gains Pakistan badly needed international loans.
Oct 7- Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri release a 20 minute statement claiming responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
Nov. Mohammed Atef, Al Qaeda military commander killed by drone strike in Afghanistan.
Dec.12 - Zacarias Musawi, a Moroccan born French citizen is the first suspect to be charged in the 9/11 attacks.
Zarqawi, the Progenitor of ISIS.
2000 -Syrian Jihadists fighting alongside Al Qaeda leader Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan.
2002- Musab al Zarqawi arrives in Iraq and founds Hai al Jamià Baghdad. Syrians who had been with Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan are sent to build network branches in Syria and Lebanon. Zarqawi would later exercise control from Iraq.
Yemen Cracks down on Al Qaeda.
-US and Yemen agree that mountain homeland of the Bin Ladens is a prime region for terror training camps.
2002- Feb. Yemen expels over 100 Islamic scholars, many of them English and French nationals in a a move against Al Qaeda suspects.
Execution of Daniel Pearl.
2002- Feb 1- Wall Street Journalist Reporter Daniel Pearl decapitated in Karachi by a Pakistani Al-Qaeda-linked organization led byAhmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
March 2-- Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's chief field and recruitment officer and Bin Laden's number 3 man, is arrested in Pakistan.
April 11- 18 are killed in attack outside a Tunisian synagogue when Al Qaeda explodes an oil tanker.
June 11- Jose Padilla is arrested landing in US from Pakistan and accused of hatching a 'dirty bomb' plot.
Sept 11- Ramzi Bimalshibh, a high-ranking Al Qaeda member and one of the 9/11 plotters is arrested in Karachi.
Oct. -the supertanker Limburg is heavily damaged off the coast of Yemen in attack. Al Qaeda is suspected.
The Bali Night Club Bombing and US and Allied Invasion of Afghanistan.
Oct 12- Indonesia's Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiya carries out massive attack on a Bali nightclub killing 202.
Nov.- US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan. Taliban driven from Kabul. US discovers video tape in which Bin Laden names 9 of the 9/11 hijackers during a meeeting with radical Jeddah cleric Khalid Harbi.
-Bin Ladin escapes to Tora Bora and tribal area of Waziristan.
Nov. 28 -Al Qaeda claims responsibility for an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa, Kenya, killing 16
9/11 Planner Sheikh Khaled Arrested
2003- March 1- Khaled Sheikh Mohammed- Bin Laden's architect of 9/11 is arrested in a CIA-Pakistani operation in Islamabad.
-Washington asks the Pakistan's ISI to hand over al Qaeda militants, but the ISI only hands over foreign Al Qaeda foot soldiers.
-Mounir Moutassadek is found guilty by a German court in Hamburg of helping to to mount the 9/11 attacks. He gets 12 years.
US Invasion of Iraq.
2003- US Invasion of Iraq: "The link between al-Nusra and the AQI is logical and should not be surprising. Al-Nusra is formed of fighters who took part in the post-2003 armed campaign against US forces in Iraq, jihadists who essentially crossed into Iraq from Syria to commit terrorist atrocities against US and Iraqi targets. Most of AQI's (Al Qaeda in Iraq) fighters were foreign jihadists from neighbouring countries, in particular Syria. Al-Nusra's leader, Jawlani, has himself acknowledged that he fought in Iraq alongside AQI."- Rusi.org, April, 2013.
-Syria becomes the pipeline for sending jihadists into Iraq for the Zarqawi network, with safe houses kept by Syrian jihadists.
Al Qaeda-linked Attacks in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Istanbul
May 12- at least 34 killed in an Al Qaeda attack on foreign luxury compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
May 16- Salafiya Jihadia, an al-Qaeda-linked Moroccan cell, kills 45 in suicide bombings on international targets in Casablanca, Morocco.
June 27 -Ali Abdul Rahman al Gamdi arrested in Riyadh suicide attacks.
Dec. 15- 23 killed in suicide attacks on two Istanbul synagogues.
Dec 20- 27 killed in double suicide bombing on the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul.
Pakistan.
-2003-2004- winter. The Pakistan army launches assaults against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Waziristan
2004--March and June offensives against al Qaeda in the Afghan border area.
Abu Musab al Zarqawi prepares to lead Al Qaeda in Iraq.
2004- Feb 9- US discovers plot for Al Qaeda entry into Iraq by Abu Musab al Zarqawi and plans to turn Sunni and Shia against one another.
2004: April Zarqawi renames his group al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), pledges allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and steps up a deadly campaign against U.S. and Iraqi targets. AQI’s ranks swell as Arab jihadists enter the country to fight against the U.S., and the group also becomes notorious for abducting foreigners and filming their execution.
The Madrid Train Bombings.
March 11- Madrid train bombings by a group linked or sympathetic to Al Qaeda kill 191.
April 15- A Bin laden tape offers a truce to all European countries that withdraw from the US's alleged war against Muslims.
May 17- head of the Iraqi Governing Council killed in Al Qaeda attack. US traces Zarqawi to a number of attacks incuding beheading of a US hostage.
Al Qaeda Attacks and Hostage Beheading in Saudi Arabia.
May 30- 22 killed by Al Qaeda-linked group in foreigners' compound at Khobar, Saudi Arabia before the compound is stormed by Saudi commandos.
June 18- US hostage Paul Johnson beheaded by Al Qaeda group in Saudi Arabia. Abdul Aziz al Muqin, head of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, killed by security forces.
Algeria, Kenya, Pakistan, Yemen.
June- Abdelmalik Droukdel announces his arrival with a truck bomb at the Algeria’s most important electrical production facility and focuses on associating the GSPC with Al Qaeda. . “The Algerian military says he cut his teeth in the 1990s as a member of the Armed Islamic Group’s feared Ahoual or “horror” company, blamed for some of the most gruesome massacres of Algeria’s civil war.” NYT
-GSPC (al-Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Call and Combat) declares war on all foreign nationals and interests in Algeria.
July 30-2004 -capture of Ahmed Khalfin Ghalani, Al Qaeda operative linked to 1998 Kenya US embassy bombing.
Sept 26- Amjad Farooqi, wanted in connection to AlQaeda murder of Daniel Pearl, killed in shoot-out with Pakistani Police. Farooqi is closely linked to Aby Faraj Al Libbi, Al Qaeda chief for Pakistan.
Sept 29- 2004- A Yemeni court senteces two Al Qaeda operatives, Al-Bashiri and Al Badawi to death for the attack on the USS Cole. Four others get prison sentences.
Zarqawi's Allegiance to Bin laden.
2004 -Oct- Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, leader of "Monotheism and Jihad" swears allegiance to Osama Bin Laden.
Oct 29- days prior to US elections, Bin aden realeases video tape warning of more attacks on th US.
2004-2005- Pakistan- due to losses in the Waziristan offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda, Pakistan makes various peace deals with local Taliban-supporting tribes. The Taliban effectively control Waziristan.
-after Amjad Farooqi is killed in shoot out with police in Karachi, Matiur Rehman takes his place as Al Qaeda planning director. Matiur Rehman us alleged to have been involved in bombing of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.
-2005- Abu Musab al-Sur, noted jihadi theorist followed by Al Nusra- " al-Suri was arrested in Pakistan (2005), but for some reason was released and handed over to Syria when the rebel uprising began (2011). It is believed that he freely resides somewhere within Syria’s borders and his teachings are heavily influencing the strategies of the Al Nusra Front".- SOFREP, March 24, 2013.
-Zaraqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq becomes the Mujahedeen Shura Council after various armed factions are integrated.
2005: Senior AQI figure Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Abu Du’a) – later described by Iraqi law enforcement as an Islamic law PhD, and the group’s “spiritual leader” during this period – is arrested and held at the U.S. military-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. (Reports differ on whether he was held for one, four or five years, and details of his release remain hazy.)
2005- 14 April -Kamil Bourgass, Al Qaeda suspect found guilty of murdering a police officer and threatening to spead ricin in Birtain, gets 17 year sentence.
-violence escalates in Iraq, some of it sectarian, most of it still involving the US military campaign against allied Sunni, Baathist and Al Qaeda militants.
April 22- Al Qaeda suspects go on trial in Madrid court for helping to plan 9/11 bombings.
May 4- Faraj Al Libbi, Al Qaeda's number three after Zawahiri and head of operations in Pakistan is arrested by pakistani police.
July 7, 2005 London Underground Bombings.
July 7- Al-Qaeda inspired group brings off London underground bombings, killing 56.
July 21- four more London underground bombings fail to detonate. Within days, four suspects are identified and arrested.
Sharm-al-Sheikh Bombings
July 23- 61 killed in AlQaeda-linked bombings in the Egyptian Red Sea rfesort of Sharm al-Sheikh. One suspect is killed by police in a shootout with Islamists.
August 19- rockets are fired at the Jordanian port city of Aqaba and at the nearby Israeli port city of Eliat.
Sept. 26- Madrid Court sentences 18 men to prison terms for planning the 9/11 attacks.
Pakistan
(July 2005)- Matuir Rehman involved in another plot on Musharraf- disrupted by police.
Nov. 2005- Hamza Rabia, Al Qaeda International Operations commander killed by drone attack in North Waziristan.
-Dec. 2005- Abu faraj al-Libbi- al Qaeda leader No. 3- involved in an attempt on Musharraff at Rawalpindi. Libbi is arrested in Mardan. Matiur Rehman is wanted in connection ith the same plot.
Algeria: GSPC links up, merges with Al Qaeda.
Dec 8- the extremist Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) plans to set up an Al-Qaeda branch in the Maghreb countries as a base for attacks to be launched on the countries that support US administration.
2006- January- Al Qaeda in the Maghreb is officially formed from the Algerian GSPC, the Moroccan GICM (responsible for the Casablanca and Madrid bombings in 2003 and 2004 respectively), and other Tunisian elements.
2006- January 19- Bin Laden releases tape offering US the choice of a truce or new attacks.
Sacred Shia Al Askiriya Mosque blown up by Al Qaeda to iginite Sectarian war in Iraq
February- Al Qaeda in Iraq operatives blow up the Al Askiriya Mosque in Samarra, sacred to Iraqi Shia, deliberately setting off an ethnic bloodbath between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
May 3- Zakarais Moussaoui is sentenced to life in US court. He is the sold person charged in the 9/11 attacks.
Zarqawi killed in targeted US air attack near Baghdad.
June 7- Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al Zarqawi is killed in a targeted US air strike northeast of Baghdad.
July 12- British-Pakistani terrorists arrested for plan to bomb 12 airliners during an Atlantic crossing.
Somalia
July- Osama Bin Laden announces al Qaeda will oppose with force any intervention in Somalia where he backs the idea of an Islamic state.
Sept 3- Al Qaeda in Iraq's number 2 man, Jama Al Saedi is captured by Iraqi authorities. Al Saedi planned the bombing of the Al Askiriya shrine.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Sept 11- Ayman Zawahiri of Al Qaeda announces the formation of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Zawahiri announces creation of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) from merger.
Sept 14- Ayman Al Zawahiri announces the merger of the Algerian militant group, the GSPC with Al Qaeda, creating Al Qaeda in the Maghredb (AQIM)
ISI before ISIS.
2006- Oct 6- Al Qaeda in Iraq becomes the Islamic State Of Iraq (ISI) founded as an umbrella group for Sunni militant organizations including Al Qaeda. After the death of Zarqawi, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi take the lead of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Al Zawi heads Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Oct. 2006: AQI renames itself Islamic State of Iraq, and its leader is identified as Hamid Dawud al-Zawi (aka Abu-Omar al-Baghdadi), an Iraqi.
2006- Oct 6- rhe Islamic State Of Iraq (ISI) founded as an umbrella group for Sunni militant organizations including Al Qaeda. After the death of Zarqawi, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and Hamid Dawud al-Zawi (AKA Abu Omar al-Baghdadi) take the lead of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
-"Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, to this day considered by ISIS as one of its founding fathers, was an Al-Qaeda operative of Egyptian origin, born in 1968, and was close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In 1982 he joined the Egyptian jihadi organization headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and was sentenced to death by Egypt in 1994 (apparently in absentia). Between 2001 and 2002 he underwent training in Afghanistan where he met Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He specialized in preparing IEDs used in Afghanistan and Iraq...: -Crethiplethi-
Pakistan
-Oct. -many of the British Pakistanis later suspected in the August 2006 attempted airline bombings in London travelled to Muzaffarabad as humanitarian earthquake relief in Jamiat ud Dawa, whose umbrella organization is Lashakr e Toiba. Membrs of the al Qaeda-linked Jundullah, a Pakistani terror group took them to training camps in Waziristan before returning to relief camps.
Tunisia
Dec 2006 to January 2007- (Dec. 23, Jan 3) Algerian Salafist groups engage Tunisian police and army units with 14 terrorists and some police killed.
Somalia
2007: AQIM in the Sahel.
February- news reports point to Al Qaeda training camps in the Sahel from Senegal to Ethiopia with plans to attack targets in Europe.
Feb 13- GSPC claims responsibility for car bombings in Boumerdas and Tizi Ouzou, on the Berber region of Kabylia in eastern Algeria. (This was a center of resistance during the Algerian war).
-Feb 16 - in the mountain region of Qashra near the town of Skikda, Alergian police kill 26 and arrest 35 militants in response to the Feb 13 car bombings.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (GSPC) : terror operations in Algeria and Morocco.
Feb 20- Moroccan police search for Hmam Bilal et Bel Hachmi and Mohamed Rida who are accused of having ties with groups including the Algeria-based al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb,
March 11- suicide bombing in Casablanca internet cafe.
2007- March 15- Mohammed Sheikh Khaled admits to planning the 9/11 attacks and 30 others at a hearing at Guantanamo Bay.
March 27- at a hearing at Gunatanamo Bay, Australian convert to Islam David Hicks, confesses to support for terrorist operations.
April 10- three suicide blasts kill and wound police in raid on Casablanca safe house.
April 11- Algiers- bombings of the police station and prime minister’s office claim 17 lives. Claimed by Al Qaeda.
April 14- two suicide bombings on US diplomatic offices in Casablanca.
April 27- high Al Qaeda operative, Al Hadi Al Iraqi, is captured by the US on his way to take over Al Qaeda operations in Iraq.
Pakistan
-March-April- 250 killed in clashes between South Waziristan tribesmen and al Qaeda militants.
Syria
2007- Syrian government cracks down on the late Zarqawi`s Syrian jihadists and safe houses. The fighters leave Syria for refuge in Iraq.
IRAQ: US troop surge against Al Qaeda.
2007: Anbar-based tribal “awakening” campaign against ISI (AQI) and other militants and “surge” of troop reinforcements sent in by President Bush helps to stem the tide of violence, marking a turning point in the Iraq conflict.-U.S. General Petraeus adopts sophisticated, modern counterinsurgency methods against Sunni insurgents as part of the troop surge. US marines make tactical alliances with Sunni Sheikhs and other former nsurgents in Anbar province who are tired of al Qaeda's excesses and violations of Islam. The Anbar Salvation Front becomes the first of several local Sunni paramilitary organizations to aly itself with the U.S..
-in the fall, despite the success of the Sunni local self-defense organizations in Anbar and Diyala, fighting al Qaeda alongside U.S. forces, al Qaeda manages to assassinate some of their leaders.
Algeria
June 11- suicide truck bomb kills soldiers at military barracks near Algiers. GSPC claims responsibility.
Life Sentences for the London underground bombers.
July 11- four men arrested in the July 21 2005 London underground bombings receive life sentences.
Sept 6- suicide blast kills twenty prior to vistit of President Boutefilka near Algiers.
Sept. 7-8- 50 die in two conseutive bombings in Algeria. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb claims responsibility.
Sept 8- GSPC claims responsibility for bombing of military barracks, killing 37 at Dellys, Algeria.
Oct 7- Zareg Zoheir, mastermind of GSPC suicide bombings killed by Algerian police.
Pakistan
2007- Pakistan rejects US claims that al Qaeda members are hiding in Pakistan.
Oct 18- Pakistan PPP parry leader Benazir Bhutto survives bombing attack as she arrives in Karachi, returning from exile.
Three get life in Madrid train bombings.
Oct 31- Madrid Court sentences three men to life in the Madrid train bombings.
Dec. 12- suicide bombings on Algeria's supreme court and on an Algiers UN agency kill 40.
Dec. 27- Benazir Bhutto is killed in a bombing attack on her motorcade while campainging in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistani authorities say Waziristan Al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud is responsible.
2008- Jan. 29- Abu Haith Al Libi, Al Qaeda military commander killed in drone strike in North Waziristan.
March 31- at Guantanamo Bay, Al Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is charged with crimes in the 1998 Kenya Embassy bombing.
Change of Tactics by Al Qaeda.
2008- having alienated Sunnis in Iraq and driven their fighters into the arms of the Americans, Al Qaeda changes its strategy and rhetoric to attract local support. Al Nusra's local effectiveness in Syria is an indirect result.
-Oct 5- Abu Qaswarah, second in command of ISI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) is killed by US military in Mosul.
Khaled, architect of 9/11 in trial in US.
June 6- Mohammed Sheikh Khaled, self-confessed planner of the 9/11 attacks, tells a US tribunal at Gunatanmo Bay that he wants to die as a martyr.
July 6- Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni and Osama Bin Laden's former driver, is convicted of war crimes at a tribunal in Gunatanamo Bay.
-July 28- Abu Khebab al Masri, Al Qaeda expert on weapons of mass destruction killed in drone strike.
Aug, 22-26 Shabab Islamist militia takes the port of Kismayo, Somalia's 3rd largest city, leaving 70 dead with plans to join Al Qaeda.
-Fall- Najibullah Zazi and three others receive al Qaeda training in Afghanistan; will soon plot to attack subway stations in New York City.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula arises from merger.
2009- Jan-March- the Yemeni and Saudi affiliates of Al Qaeda merge into Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, affiliated by the Yemen-based US-Muslim preacher, Al Awlaki. The Yemeni and Saudi affiliates of Al Qaeda merge into Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula. AQAP formed from a merger of al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi branches and led by Nasir ul-Wuhayshi. The Saudi group had been effectively suppressed by the Saudi government, forcing its members to seek sanctuary in Yemen. It is believed to have several hundred members.
Feb. -Yemeni government Announces release of five Al Qaeda suspects on condition of good behaviour.
Somalia
2009 January - Ethiopia completes the withdrawal of its troops. Fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked radical Islamist al-Shabab militia take control of the town of Baidoa, formerly a key stronghold of the transitional government.
March 19- Osama Bin Laden releases tape in which he urges Islamists to overthrow President Ahmed.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
2009 May - Algeria begins sending military equipment to Mali in preparation for a joint operation against Al Qaeda in the Maghreb
Somalia
2009 June - Somalia's security minister and more than 20 other people are killed in a suicide bombing at a hotel in Beledweyne, north of the capital Mogadishu. Al Shabab, working closely with Al Qaeda, declares responsibility. President Ahmed declares a state of emergency as violence intensifies. Somali officials appeal to neighbouring countries to send troops to Somalia, as government forces continue to battle Islamist insurgents.
Lebanon
July- Lebanese army arrests 10 suspected Al Qaeda operatives believed to be planning attacks on UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon.
Al Baghdadi, head of Al Qaeda in Iraq killed near Tikrit.
Dec 2009- the Islamic State of Iraq, sometimes called an al Qaeda franchise, claims responsibility for a mass of bombings in Baghdad killing 127, as well as other killings in August and October killing 240.
2010- January- according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Al Qaeda is planning to destabilize Pakistan and ingite a nuclear war between Pakistan and India.
2010- April 18- leader of ISI or Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, killed outside Tikrit.
"Since its effective creation in 2003, under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, ISI had been happy to use al-Qaida’s brand name and its money, but often ignored pleas for closer communication with central command – even when they came from Bin Laden himself. In 2010, they crossed a line: ISI appointed a new leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, without prior approval from al-Qaida, whose senior leaders knew almost nothing about the man – where he had come from, his military experience, whether he could be trusted." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida.
Failed Times Square bombing.
May- Faisal Sahazad is arrested in a failed attempt to bomb Times Square using a van packed with explosives.
Yemen
2010- President Saleh says he will open talks with Al Qaeda militants provided they renounce violence.
2010- June 19- Four al Qaeda gunmen dressed in women’s clothing attacked an intelligence headquarters in Aden and freed several suspected al Qaeda militants. On June 21 Yemen announced the arrest of the attack’s mastermind. Security forces investigating the attack made several arrests on June 25 in Aden during house-to-house searches. On July 11, AQAP claimed that its Martyr Jamil al Anbari Brigade carried out the attack. An AQAP statement stated the attack killed 24 officers and soldiers, deviating from the government’s report of 11 killed. AQAP also denied that the government had captured those responsible for the attack
Mauretania
2010 Jul 24, French-backed Mauritanian military operations against al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara desert wound up after four days of hunting Islamists deep inside Mali.
Aug 12- Osama Bin Laden's former cook and driver, Ibrahim al Qosi, is sentenced to 14 years in prison for providing material support to terrorism. A plea bargain is pending.
2010- Sep 17, The Mauritanian army launched an offensive against the North African branch of al-Qaida in neighboring Mali. At least 12 militants died and five Mauritanians were killed in the operation, which was launched inside northern Mali with permission
-Sept. -Najiibullah Zazi arrested for attempting to bomb subway stataions in new York City.
Conviction of would-be London Airline bombers
-Sept- conviction by a London court of the three Al Qaeda-linked bombers who conspired to blow transatlantic passenger jets out of the air using smuggled liquid explosives.
- Sept- Drone missile strike in Pakistan kills Ilyas Kashmiri, Al Qaeda military commander and head of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Kashmir insurgent group. Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami.
Taliban Severs Ties with Al Qaeda.
-Taliban has severed its last ties with al Qaeda. 100 Al Qaeda fighter remain in Afghanistan.
Yemen
Oct- government troops under US pressure fighting Al Qaeda in difficult, rugged terrain of South Yemen, particularly in the Abyan region.
Al Qaeda Massacres Christians
October 31, 2010- 52 are masscred in an Al Qaeda hostage taking and attack on a Syrian Christian chruch in Baghdad.
Maliki Alienates Sunnis in Iraq.
New elections in Iraq sow the seeds of future discontent. Iraqiyya, a secular and religiously mixed bloc led by Ayad Allawi, a former British exile, win a narrow majority of votes, but the Shia bloc run by current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, regains power after forming a governing coalitiion with Iranian-backed parties. Rather than handing key security positions to his opponents as promised, Mr Maliki concentrates power in his own hands, alienating the Sunni community.
Dec. 4- Osama Bin Laden believed to be in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.
Dec 8- Salh al Somali, coordinatior of Al Qaeda in Afhganistan and Pakistan witg Al Qaeda abroad is killed in a drone strike.
Underwear Airline Bomber Trained in Yemen under Al Qaeda.
-Al Qaeda claims responsibility for the Christmas attack on a US airliner by
the 'underwear bomber.' Sana'a asks for the West's support in the war on terror.
Dec 25- Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab, the "Underwear Bomber", arrested for attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He had been trained in Yemen by 'Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsuala."
US State Department Concerned about Al Qaeda in Yemen.
2011 January - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits to express "urgent concern" at al-Qaeda activities in Yemen.
2011 Suicide Attacks in Iraq.
January 2011 Iraq suicide attacks were a series of three consecutive suicide bombings in Iraq which left at least 133 dead.
April 26, 2011: NATO reveals that Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, a regional commander in Afghanistan in charge of suicide bombings and cash flow, was killed by an airstrike earlier in the month.
April 25, 2011: The Al unnah Al Nawabiah Mosque in Montreal was among nine houses of prayer or Islamic institutes worldwide considered by the U.S. military to be places where "known al-Qaeda members were recruited, facilitated or trained," according to leaked classified American intelligence documents.
US Special Forces Kill Osama Bin Laden.
April 26, 2011: NATO reveals that Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, a regional commander in Afghanistan in charge of suicide bombings and cash flow, was killed by an airstrike earlier in the month.
May 1, 2011: Osama Bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda is killed when CIA paramilitaries and a Navy SEAL team attack his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Al Badri succeeds Al Zawi as head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
May 16, 2010-Al Badri close to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the founder of the Islamic State of Iraq succeeds him as emir of ISI after Omar’s death.
Syria- the Al Nusra Front- Independant fromAl Qaeda.
Aug. 2011: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al-Badri threatens on an AQI website to carry out 100 attacks across Iraq to avenge the death of bin Laden three months earlier.
US Assassinates Al Qaeda Preacher Awlaki
Sept- US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is assassinated by US forces.
Iraq and Syria
Oct. 2011: State Department lists al-Badri as a specially designated global terrorist, offers a $10 million reward for information leading to his location.
2011- Syrian Jihadists begin to return from Iraq for the Syrian uprising. Some form the 'Al Nusra Front.' "By this time, ISI had been pushed to the brink of collapse by US and Iraqi forces – but the Syrian civil war gave the group a chance to rebuild. As the conflict began to intensify, Baghdadi quietly dispatched one of his junior officers, Abu Muhammad al-Joulani, across the border in late
2011 to take advantage of the chaos. Equipped with funds, weapons, and some of ISI’s best soldiers, Joulani’s group – which would soon be known as the Nusra Front – quickly became the most formidable fighting force in Syria." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
Oct- in Homs and Rif Dimashq jihadists discuss Al Nusra's founding and objectives. . 'Al Nusra' means "The Support Front for the People of the Levant [Greater Syria]" At its founding, it had no affiliation with Al Qaeda.
2011- Dec.- veteran jihadists of deceased Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi, leave Iraq, crossing the border to Syria to join in the Arab Spring rebellion against the Assad regime. Jabhat Al Nusra (JN) claims to fight on behalf of the Syria's increasingly oppressed Sunni majority and against Syria's ruling Shia Alawite sect and its allies which include Shia Iran and the Shia Hezbollah organization and militia in Lebanon.
Yemen
2011- Dec 13- Yemeni security forces arrested six “well-known” al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operatives in Yemen; among the operatives was high-value target and leader of AQAP in al Jawf governorate, Musaed al Barbari. A stockpile of weapons and “training manuals” were found in his possession. The suspects, including Barbari, Mohamed Hussein Musayyib, Mohammad Abdulkadir Ahmed al Shihri, Nader Ahmad Mohamed al Qubati, Mohamed Muthana Ali al Amari, and Abdul Munaim Hamid Ali Abu Ghanem, had been planning attacks targeting high-ranking security officials, foreign embassies, and government buildings in Yemen. Also, the suspects had been “actively recruiting fighters” to join Ansar al Sharia militants fighting in Abyan and Shabwah governorates. Separately, three fugitives who escaped from al Mansoura Central Security prison in Aden on December 11 were captured
Iraq: Maliki moves against Sunni VP al-Hashemi.
December, 2011- Mr Maliki issues an arrest warrant for Tariq al-Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni vice-president, who flees abroad. The government claims Mr Hashemi has been using his bodyguards for terrorism campaigns, but Iraq's Sunnis see it as a sectarian smear campaign against his political rivals. Mr Maliki replaces competent military leaders who had worked with the Americans with political cronies, undermining the military's strength just when the US is pulling out its forces.
Syria: Al Nusra (JN).
Dec. 23- suicide car bombs kill 44 in Damascus. Al Nusra claims responsibility.
2102- Jan- al Nusra meetings continue in Rif Damashq and Homs.
2012- Jan 23- In its inaugural video Al Nusra claims an attack on a government security installation in Idlib. "We are Syrian mujahideen, back from various jihad fronts to restore God's rule on the Earth and avenge the Syrians' violated honour and spilled blood," a masked man declared in the video. (BBC)
2012- 10 Feb Al Nusra (JN) suicide bombings kill 28 in Aleppo.
2102- March 17- two car bombs in Damasucs kill 27.
2012- March-April- JN expands after many leading jihadists from Lebanese Fatah al-Islam and Palestinian groups joined the leadership and were able to secure sponsorship of key jihadi ideologues including Sheikh Abu al-Mundhir al-Shinqiti, Sheikh Abu Muhammad. JN may be responsible for bombings carried out on this date.
2012- May 29- On 29 May 2012, a mass execution was discovered near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor. The unidentified corpses of 13 government soldiers had been discovered shot to death execution-style. JN (Al Nusra) later claimed responsibility.
2012- June 17- Walid Ahmad al-Ayesh, described by Syrian authorities as the "right hand" of the Al-Nusra Front, was killed when Syrian authorities discovered his hiding place. He was reportedly responsible for the making of car bombs that were used to attack Damascus in the previous months. (Wikipedia)
2012- June 27- JN blows up a pro-government TV station in the town of Drousha, just south of the capital Damascus.
2012- June 27- JN blows up a pro-government TV station in the town of Drousha, just south of the capital Damascus.
2012- July- al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to former strongholds from which US troops and the Sons of Iraq had driven them in 2007 and 2008. He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons. Violence in Iraq had begun to escalate in June 2012, primarily with AQI's car bomb attacks, and by July 2013, monthly fatalities exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008. (Wikipedia)
Al Qaeda Offensive in Mali
June 30, 2012- Armed Islamists destroy ancient tombs of Muslim saints that offend their puritan views in the desert city of Timbuktu and threaten to wipe out every religious shrine there. They impose sharia, the strict and often brutal Islamic law.
-summer of 2012, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar Dine, another radical Islamist group, took advantage of the instability and an increasingly weak military in Mali and captured Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao, cities in the north. They implemented and brutally enforced Shariah, or Islamic law.
September 2012- militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades fired upon the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other embassy officials. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the U.S. believed that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a group closely linked to al-Qaeda, orchestrated the attack.
Al Zawahiri Defends al Qaeda's Al Nusra from claims of merger by ISIS.
May 2013: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al-Badri declares merger of AQI and al-Nusra under the name Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or alternatively, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The perceived power grab is rejected by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who declares that al-Nusra is the only al-Qaeda affiliate engaged in the anti-Assad campaign. Al-Badri ignores al-Zawahiri’s instructions to focus on Iraq, and instead continues operations in both countries.
Somalia- Al Shebab
2013- June 28: UN reports that the Al-Shabaab spiritual leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has turned himself in to pro-government officials in the central town of Adado. Local elders assert that he and his militia are stationed in the central Galmudug region, having fled from their own comrades in Al-Shabaab-controlled territory after a bout of infighting. According to the Shabelle Media Network, legislators and elders flew in to the town in an attempt to persuade Aweys to negotiate with the government. However, the elders indicate that their efforts were unsuccessful
ISIS strengthened with jailbreak.
July, 2013- The new joint Syrian-Iraqi al-Qaeda offshoot, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (ISIS), gains a major coup when it breaks nearly 500 fellow militants from Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. That ISIS can break its way into what is supposedly the most secure jail in the country shows how well-organised it has become. Many escapees rejoin ISIS's ranks.
2013- July Ahrar Al Sham (ISIS) now numbers about 15,000, the largest Jihadist umbrella group in Iraq. Some Ahrar al-Sham units that have been involved in heavy fighting include the Qawafel al-Shuhada and Ansar al-Haqq Brigades (both in Khan Sheikhoun, Idleb Province), the al-Tawhid wal-Iman Brigade (Maarrat al-Noum an, Idleb Province), the Shahba Brigade (Aleppo City), the Hassane bin Thabet Brigade (Darat Ezza, Aleppo Province), and the Salahaddin and Abul-Fida Brigades (both in Hama City) (Wikipedia)
2013- Dec. ISIS captures a member of the Islamic Front -accusing him of espionage- and tortures and murders him. "Within days, Syria’s major rebel groups – including Nusra, the country’s al-Qaida affiliate – banded together to declare war on Isis. Thousands of militants were killed over the first few months of 2014, as battles raged between Isis and the other rebel factions, with senior commanders on both sides kidnapped, tortured and murdered. As their positions were overrun, Isis was forced to retreat from western Syria. It began consolidating its control over the east, the area closest to Iraq, and the location of many of Syria’s oil fields. There, Nusra and Isis fought viciously, in and around the city of Raqqa and along the banks of the Euphrates." www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
December, 2013- Human Rights Watch issues a report criticising the Iraqi government over the scale of its use of the death penalty, often in cases where confessions have been extracted by torture. A disproportionate number of those on death row appear to be Sunni insurgents.
Jan. 2014- ISIS sends gunmen into the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The Iraqi army surrounds both cities but does not go for an all-out assault for fear of large civilian casualties that would alienate locals still further. Five months later, both cities remain outside of Iraqi security forces' control.
War Between ISIS and Al Nusra
Winter/spring 2014: ISIS/ISIL battles al-Nusra and other rebel groups for control of territory across northern Syria. Thousands die in this conflict within the wider Syrian civil war. The State Department says the group likely makes up “a significant portion of the estimated 26,000 violent extremist fighters in Syria.
ISIS ATTACK ON FALLUJAH AND RAMADI
Jan. 2014- ISIS sends gunmen into the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The Iraqi army surrounds both cities but does not go for an all-out assault for fear of large civilian casualties that would alienate locals still further. Five months later, both cities remain outside of Iraqi security forces' control.
On 16 January 2014, Zawahiri’s envoy, Abu Khalid al-Suri, published a message online. He tweeted that Isis was seeking to corrupt the jihad as it had done in Iraq: militants should direct their bombs at the infidels, he declared, not at their fellow jihadis. Seventeen days later, Zawahiri played his final card: Isis was expelled from al-Qaida.
Feb 3- Al Qaeda disowns ISIS, stating that its former affiliate “is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group [and al-Qaeda] does not have an organizational relationship with it and is not the group responsible for their actions.”
"On 26 May 2014,(Al Qaeda Scholar) Maqdisi deemed the negotiations dead and, backed by his fellow al-Qaida ideologues, issued a fatwa against Isis. “It has become necessary that we tell the truth, after we exhausted all the possibilities of advice and all hopes of making Isis return to the path of truth,” Maqdisi wrote. The rebellious organisation, he declared, had no “Islamic pretext”. Baghdadi, his commanders, and their religious officials were “deviants” who had “disobeyed the orders of their leaders and head scholars”. He instructed Isis’s soldiers to defect to the Nusra Front, and decreed that no Islamic website should host Isis messages." www.theguardian.com/world
2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
June 5, 2014, ISIS/ISIL forces launch an attack against the Iraqi city of Samarra, but are expelled by Iraqi airstrikes.
Jun. 9-10, 2014 ISIS/ISIL forces capture control of most of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and free hundreds of prisoners, including some of its fighters. Iraqi forces reportedly flee. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declares a state of emergency.
June 11, 2014- ISIS/ISIL forces take control of an oil refinery at Baiji then move further down the highway to Baghdad and seize Tikrit, just 95 miles north of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of people are reported to have been displaced as a result of the fighting.
June, 2014- ISIS takes over the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, also threatening Baghdad. Five years from being all but vanquished, al-Qaeda's writ in Iraq is as strong, if not stronger, as it was before.
ISIS DECLARES A CALIPHATE IN SYRIA AND IRAQ.
June 29, 2014- Isis declares a caliphate across controlled areas in Syria and Iraq while calling for global allegiance. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declares himself the leader – or caliph - of the 1.8 billion Muslims all over the world.
2014- July 2: Al-Baghdadi calls for all Muslims to gather to his new land and unite to “capture Rome” and own the world.
2014 July 3: Isis takes control of al-Omar, Syria’s largest oil-field
2015 July 5: Al-Baghdadi is recorded in his first public appearance, at the Grand Mosque in Mosul, calling on all Muslims to obey him.
2014- July 17: Isis claims to have killed 270 people after seizing the Shaer gas field in Syria. Days later dozens of Iraqi Christians leave after a warning by Isis that it will carry out a similar attack if they do not convert to Islam.
July 26: Isis blows up Jonah’s tomb, a holy site in Jewish heritage.
ISIS TAKES SINJAR, MASSCRES YAZIDI CHRISTIANS. ENSLAVEMENT AND RAPE.
2014- August 3: Militants capture the city of Sinjar. They begin a massacre that culminates in the deaths of over 5,000 men from the Yazidi religious sect. Thousands of women are raped and sold into slavery. 200,000 Yazidi flee with as many as 50,000 becoming stranded on the Sinjar Mountains surrounded by ISIS.
August 6: Kurdish forces join the fight against Isis.
US BEGINS AIR STRIKES
August 8: US President Barack Obama authorizes the first air strikes, which subsequently drop bombs outside the Kurdish city of Erbil, where Isis movement had sparked a mass exodus.
August 15: Isis massacres a Yazidi village in northern Iraq.
BEHEADING OF JAMES FOLEY
August 19: Isis’ media arm uploads a video entitled “Message to America,” showing the beheading of the American journalist and hostage James Foley. The masked militant, who speaks with a British accent, demands the US ceases air strikes.
2014- August 29: The UK Home Secretary Theresa May raises the UK terror level to ‘severe’ in response to the conflict in Iraq and Syria.
BEHEADING OF STEVEN SOTLOFF
2014- Sept 2: Isis uploads another video featuring the same militant (now known by his tabloid monikor ‘Jihadi John’), this time showing the beheading of another US journalist, Steven Sotloff.
FORMATION OF WESTERN COALITION AGAINST ISIS
Sept 5: The US announces the formation of a coalition to “destroy the threat posed by Isis”. The ten-nation coalition comprises of US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.
-Sept 11: The CIA announces that Isis now has between 20,000 to 31,500 fighters.
The US announces numerous Aran nations have agreed to support the coalition.
Sept 13- ISIS launches an offensive on the northern Syrian city district of Kobane, home to a city of the same name, meeting a strenuous resistance from its predominantly Kurdish population. A four-month siege ensues.
Sept 13: Isis releases another video, showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines by ‘Jihadi John’. The militant threatens to kill another British hostage if the UK continues its ‘evil alliance with America.’
Sept- 22, 2014: Isis executes Iraqi human rights activist Samira Salih al-Nuaimi
Sept 23: US warplanes bomb Isis fighters in Raqqa, a northern Syrian city claimed by Isis to be its capital.
Sept 24: Isis-affiliated Algerian militant group Jund al-Khiilafah kidnap and behead a French tourist, Hervé Gourdel
ISIS RELEASES MORE VIDEOS OF WESTERN HOSTAGES
Sept 29: Isis releases a video showing the kidnapped British journalist John Cantlie in an orange jumpsuit reading a seemingly scripted message criticising President Obama.
Oct 3: Isis releases a video showing the beheading of the British aid worker Alan Henning as they threaten to kill another, the American aid worker Peter Kassig, also known as Abdul Rahman Kassig
Oct 13- ISIS English-language propaganda magazine, Dabiq, calls on jihadi sympathisers to attack westerners "wherever they can be found."
ISIS IN BATTLE FOR KOHANI ON SYRIAN-TURKISH BORDER.
Oct 16: Isis is pushed back from the Syrian city of Kobani with help from US air strikes.
Oct 20- a Canadian convert and IS sympathiser runs dwon two soldiers, killing one, with his car near Montreal.
Oct 22- An Islamist gunmen kills a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa, before storming Canada's parliament building. He is subsequently shot dead by security forces.
Oct 29: Senior Australian figure and Isis recruiter Mohammad Ali Baryalei is reportedly killed in Syria.
2014- Nov. 3: The Iraqi government announces Isis has killed 322 members of the Albu Minr tribe during a series of executions.
Nov. 8: Iraqi government officials claim that Isis leader al-Baghdadi is wounded in a coalition air strike near Mosul.
Nov 13: A recording of al-Baghdadi surfaces as in which he claims the US military-led campaign is failing and that the coalition of “America and its allies are terrified, weak and powerless” and to “light the Earth with fire under all the tyrants and their soldiers and supporters.”
Nov 16: The group claims to have beheaded American aid worker Peter Kassig along with a dozen Syrian soldiers.
Nov 29: At least 40 fighters on both sides are killed in the city of Kobani during a battle between Syrian Kurds and Isis militants.
ISIS LOSES SINJAR
2014- Dec 19: Isis is pushed out of most of the Sinjar region of Iraq.
Dec 15- a self-professed Muslim cleric with a criminal record for sexual assault, takes 17 hostages at a Sydney café claiming to for ISIS. Two people and the attacker die after police storm the premises.
Dec 21: The Sinjar offensive is considered a success with a Kurdish victory.
Dec 24: Isis militants claim to shoot down and then capture a Jordanian pilot in northern Syria. They demand the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaeda prisoner held in Jordan over a failed suicide bombing.
2015- Jan 4: Isis attacks Saudi Arabia near the border city of Arar, killing four border guards.
Jan 10: A video released shows Taliban fighters pledging allegiance to Isis.
Jan 18: Isis releases about 250 Yazidis.
ISIS BEHEADS JAPANESE HOSTAGE
2015- Jan 20: The group demands a ransom of $200 million from Japan in exchange for two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yokawa.
Jan 24: A video is uploaded that seems to show Goto holding a photo of Yokawa, who has been beheaded.
KURDS TAKE KOHANE FROM ISIS
Jan 26: Kurdish fighters take control of the Syrian border town of Kobane after fighting Isis for months.
2015- Jan 26- Renegade Taliban fightrs swear allegiance to Baghdadi and found 'The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan,' using Khorasan, the ancient term for the Afghanistan region.
Jan 31: A video is released showing the beheading of Kenji Goto by the British militant.
ISIS RELEASES VIDEO OF JORDANIAN PILOT BURNED ALIVE IN A CAGE.
2015- Feb 3: Isis supporters post a video online of the captured Jordanian military pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage.
Feb 5: The Jordanian military carries out a series of air strikes on Isis training centres and weapons depots.
Feb 6: Isis claims a Jordanian air strike killed the American hostage Kayla Mueller.
Feb 10: Kayla Mueller’s family announce she is dead after receiving confirmation from Isis.
Feb 11: President Obama asks Congress to authorise use of military force against Isis.
ISIS MOVES AGAINST EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS.
Feb 15: Libyan Isis militants release a video that appears to show the group beheading 21 Egyptian Christians.
Feb 15- An IS sympathiser goes on a gun rampage in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing two, at freedom of speech event and a synagogue.
Feb 15- IS Libyan branch releases footage showing the beheading of 21 Eguptian Christians on a beach.
Feb 16: Egypt launches air strikes on Isis camps, training sites and weapon depots in retaliation for the beheadings.
Feb 22: Isis releases a propaganda video of Kurdish Peshmerga troops in orange jumpsuits in cages.
Feb 26: The identity of terrorist known as ‘Jihadi John’ is revealed as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwati-born Londoner.
Feb 26- Isis also releases a video of the destruction of historical artefacts in the Mosul Museum.
2015- March 4: Isis releases images of a man thrown off a building as punishment for being gay.
ISIS ACCEPTS ALLEGIANCE FROM BOKO HAREM IN NIGERIA.
March 12: Boko Harem, the Islamist militant group in northern Nigeria pledges allegiance to Isis. Isis accepts.
March 18- ISIS claims responsibility for a deadly attack at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, in which 22 people, including British, French and Italian tourists are killed.
2015- March 20: Isis takes responsibility for a suicide bombing that kills 137 people and wounds over 300 in Yemen.
ISIS USES TUNIS TO CROSS INTO LIBYA
March 24: Isis uses the town of Tataouine, a Tunisian town that inspired the Star Wars city of Tattooine, as a waypoint to cross into Libya.
March 25: US-led coalition begins air strikes on the Iraqi city of Tikrit.
ISIS LOSES TIKRIT TO IRAQI ARMY
2015- April 1: Iraq declares victory over Isis in Tikrit.
Apr 12: Iraqi government declares Tikrit free of Isis forces.
Apr 18: Fighters in Isis’ Wilayat Khorasan province claim responsibility for a suicide bombing in Afghanistan that kills 33 people and injures over 100.
Apr 19: Isis produces a video showing the shooting and beheadings in Libya of two groups of prisoners, who are identified as 30 Ethiopian Christians.
2015- May 1: It is reported that Al-Baghdadi is recovering in Mosul
May 2: Isis kills 300 Yazidi captives in Iraq.
Afghanistan
April- newly arrivied ISIS and the Taliban declare Jihad against one another
ISIS CLAIMS FARLAND, TEXAS ATTACK.
May 5: The group claims an attack in Garland, Texas, where two gunmen opened fire on a contest to draw the Prophet Mohamed.
May 13: Abu Alaa Afri, the deputy leader of Isis, is killed in US-led coalition air strike.
2015 May 16: US Special Ops kill Abu Sayaaf, a senior Isis commander, and capture his wife.
ISIS CAPTURES RAMADI
May 17: Isis seizes the city of Ramadi in Iraq. Over 500 people are killed.
ISIS CAPTURES PALMYRA
May 20: Isis takes control of the ancient city of Palymyra, Syria.
May 28: The group claims it has seized the Libyan Air Force airport in Sirte.
The Fight for Al Hasakah, Syria.
2015- 30 May- after ISIL forces suffered collapse in the western Al-Hasakah province, they launched an offensive on the Syrian government-held portion of Al-Hasakah city. Although the Kurdish YPG initially stayed out of the conflict, they eventually joined the conflict on 5 June, after ISIL reached the southern gate of the city, after a decision that the YPG would be recognized as a primary combatant force in the city. (Wikipedia)
2015 June 1: A militant posts a “selfie” online, which leads the US military to identify and perform air strikes on a compound, destroying it in the process.
June 2: Isis closes the gates of a dam in Ramadi.
ISIS BEHEADS 10 TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN
June 7: Isis captures 10 Taliban militants in Afghanistan and beheads them.
KURDS TAKE POINTS IN NORTHERN SYRIA FROM ISIS
June 15: Syrian Kurdish fighters take the town of Tell Abyad from Isis.
June 23: Kurds take back a key base north of Raqqa from Isis fighters
On the same day, a video emerges showing a group of hostages being split into three, before some are executed using a rocket-propelled grenade, others are drowned in a cage and the rest are beheaded using electrical charges.
ISIS TAKES PALMYRA
Militants begin destroying ancient monuments in the ancient city of Palmyra.
June 26- Isis claims the killing of 38 people in a shooting at a Tunisian beach resort and for a separate suicide bombing that kills at least 25 Shiite worshipers in a Kuwait mosque.
2015- 8 June- ISIL was pushed back from Al-Hasakah city, and Syrian Army forces were able to establish a 12 kilometer (7.46 mi) buffer zone around the southern portion of Al-Hasakah.
Afghanistan- ISIS and the death of Mullah Omar.
July 31- Death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, gives possible boost to ISIS over leaderless Taliban factions.
Syria
11 August. ISIS loses Al Hasakah to Syrian Government forces. The US-led Coalition conducted an airstrike on a village east of Al-Hasakah city, blowing up a building that ISIL was using for a meeting, which killed over 50 ISIL militants. On 12 August, ISIL reportedly publicly shot and executed more than 90 of its own members as punishment for escaping the battlefield. ISIL claimed that the fighters' desertion was the main cause of ISIL's loss at the Battle of Al-Hasakah. It was reported on 16 August that ISIL had executed four more of its own fighters for allegedly collaborating with the Coalition. (Wikipedia)
Aug 19- Militants from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) beheaded one of Syria's most prominent antiquities scholars in the ancient town of Palmyra, then hung his body from one of the town's Roman columns, Syrian state media and an activist group said Wednesday. The killing of 81-year-old Khaled al-Asaad was the latest atrocity perpetrated by the militant group, which has captured a third of both Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared a self-styled "caliphate" on the territory it controls.
Aug 24- Islamic State militants have released photos showing what appears to be the destruction of the ancient Baal Shamin temple in Syria's Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recently captured and vandalized by the jihadists.
2015- Aug 30- ISIS blows up 2000 year old Temple of Bel in Palmyra.
thanks to BBC Timelines and:
TheIndependent on Sunday
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/timeline-al-qaeda-linked-terrorists-move-closer-establishing-islamic
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/10895006/Timeline-How-al-Qaeda-regained-its-hold-in-Iraq.html
-http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/05/02/f-al-qaeda-timeline.html
- Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/al-qaeda-terrorism.html#ixzz2Rg9JhBiu
630- Battle of Hunayn, Mohammed defeats the Hawazin Bedouins near Mecca. One of his followers, Huruqus ibn Zuhair, criticizes Mohammed for offering booty in return for converting to Islam. Mohammed predicts that he will betray Islam.
The Rashidun Caliphate (632-661): Ali and Abu Bakr: the split between Shia and Sunni.
The Prophet Muhammed surrounded by the four Rashidun Caliph's
The First Caliph- Abu Bakr 632-634
-632- 3 months before Mohammed's death, on his last pilgrimmage to mecca, Shiites believe that he stopped his caravan by a pond and said, "Do I not have more to say to you than all the others?" Followers say 'yes'. Then he says, "All those whom I command shall also be commanded by Ali."
-but Abu Bakr, Mohammed's companion had been asked by the prophet to lead the prayers before his death, making him virtual leader.
-but after Mohammed's death in 632- many refuse to recongize Ali.
-Though Ali had been a close deputy and a military commander, Abu Bakr (632-634) became the Caliph or successor.
-637- Arab Muslims take Mesopotamia from the Persian Sassinids.
The Second Caliph- Omar 634-644
-Abu Bakr
is succeeded by Omar (634-644) and the third Caliph Osman- (644-656) followers from
the old Arab aristocracy of Mecca- recent allies of Mohammed. Ali could
not accept Osman and joined the opposition because, though he differed on
matters of doctrine with Bakr and Omar, his differences with Osman were
severe. Osman followed by Hazrat Ali.
-Ali accepted the first two Caliphs Bakr and Omar
The Third Caliph- Osman- 644-656
-656- assassination of third caliph- Osman by Egyptian rebels along with the the son of Omar. Ali appointed to Caliphate by the ruling tribe, the Quraysh. He decided not to punish the rebels severely. He was opposed by Aisha, wife of Muhammed and daughter of Abu Bakr who wanted rebels punished.
The Fourth Caliph, Ali- 656-661
661- Kufa- assassination of Ali ibn Abi Talib- first imam- rightful successor to Mohammed. Killed by Kharijite extremists in the mosque of Kufa. (Shia = partisans of Ali). Shiites see this act as a rejection of the true succession by the Muslim majority. Buried at Najaf. Ali has since passed his own infallibility on to a series of Imams.
Umayyad Caliphate- 661-750.
661- Muawiyah is crowned head of the Muslim Empire in Jerusalem. He establishes the Umayyad Caliphate.
"...according to the Famous Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya, Kharijites were the first to use excommunication processes against the rest of the Muslim community. Committing sin is viewed by Kharijites as a justifiable reason to excommunicate any Muslim who is not in accordance with their framework of interpreting major Islamic texts. They then find it lawful for them to fight supposed Muslim sinners and kill them." -Morocco World News, December 3, 2014.
683- " In the period of civil war (fitnah) following the death of the caliph Yazīd I (683), the Khārijites were the source of serious disruptions within the Umayyad domain and in Arabia. Subdued through the intensive campaigning of al-Ḥajjāj, the Khārijites did not stir again until the collapse of the Umayyads, and then their two major rebellions, in Iraq and Arabia, ended in defeat." - Encyclopedia Britannica on line.
Hanbal
780-855- Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, sounder of the Hanbali code of Sharia law. He holds that a decision in Sharia must be referred directly to the Quran and the sunna- not to the legal framework that had grown up around them. In other words, he held that the law itself had already been written in the words of the Quran.
The Hanbali Reform Movement of early Arabia.
780-855- Ahmad Ibn Hanbal, sounder of the Hanbali code of Sharia law. He holds that a decision in Sharia must be referred directly to the Quran and the sunna- not to the legal framework that had grown up around them. In other words, he held that the law itself had already been written in the words of the Quran.
-in subsequent centuries, the Hanbali Code loses strength everywhere except at Najd in central Arabia.
1042-1147-North Africa and Spain
Almoravids impose Islamic rule over an area comprising modern Morocco, Mauretainia, northern Mali, western Algeria and Spain.
Ibn Taimiya Revives the Hanbali Code in the Middle Ages.
1300- (crica) in a revival, Ahmad Ibn Taimiya upholds the Hanbali Code as a means of reform and of condemning the cults of tombs and saints, and urging the continual interpretation (itijihad) of law in light of the Quran. He sees the Shia, with all their excess ritual, as the enemy within. He upheld the Sunni Caliphs over the Shia Imams because be believed that seizing and weilding secular power was all that mattered in a leader- and the Caliphs had done that most effecrively.
1328- death of Ibn Taimiya.
1250-1517- The Mameluke Caliphs of Cairo adopt the Hanbali Code.
The Wahhabi Movement of the 18th Century.
1703- Abdul al-Wahhab is born at Najd, a main centre of Hanbali Islam in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula.
1725 (circa) -Al-Wahhab (1703-1787) founds Muwahidun (unitarian) movement- an attempt to purify Islam of medieval superstition, to stop the translation of Sharia into jurisprudence and to get rid of the cult of saints. The Muwahidun follow the Hanbali school as taught by Tarq al Din ibn Taimiya (qv). Wahhab's oponnents call his followers 'Wahhabis', the name that stuck.
-Wahhab makes attendance at public prayer obligatory, forbids the building of minarets,
Ibn Saud, Wahhabism and the Origins of the House of Saud
-having failed to spread his movement, Al Wahhab allies himself with a tribal chieftain, Mohammed Ib Saud.
1726-65- Mohammed Ibn Saud, ruler of the Diraiya Emirate embraces Wahhabism, has his subjects convert on pain of death.
1745- Muhammad Ibn Saud becomes ruler of Najd, the central plateau and oasis region of Arania, founds the House of Saud.
-in alliance with followers of Saud, Wahabbis mount a campaign against idolatry, corruption and adultery. On the authority of the Hadith, they ban dancing, music and poetry, silk, gold, ornaments and jewelery.
1766-1803- Mohammed's son, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, continues to uphold Wahhabism.
1773- Abdul Aziz ibn Saud takes Riyadh.
1802- in a campaign against the Shia, the Wahhabis attack the Shia holy city of Karbala.
1810- the Whhabi Ibn Sauds ruule most of Arabia.
1803-1814 Saud Ibn Abdul Aziz of the House of Saud tries to spread Wahhabism to the frontiers of Syria and Iraq.
The Ottoman Sultan sends the Egyptian Pasha to Crush Wahhabism.
-the Ottoman Sultan is outrages by what he sees as descecration of the holy pplaces of Arabi by the Sauds and their Wahhabism.
1814-18- Sent by hte sultan, Muhammad Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, crushes the Wahhabist movement and executes Abdullah Ibn Saud.
Salafism
1838-97- Jamal al-din Afghani. Helps develop Salafism- an Islamic ideology based on the example of the salaf- the ancestors of early Islam. He promotes the Pan-Islam movement in an attempt to revive a mythical 'pure' Islam free of ethnic and political rivalries.
1849-1905- Muhammad Abdu- a follower of Afghani (b. 1838) emphasized the influence of the Salaf on Sharia law.
1865-1935- Muhammad Rashid Rida, follower of Abdu (b. 1849) researched what Mohammed and 'the pious ancestors' had done and taught so that it could be applied to contemporary conditions. He preferred the Salaf to the four Sunni legal schools.
19th century in Mali-
-French colonial advance provokes the Fula and Toucouleur (Tukolor ) jihads which spread across region. Various theocratic states formed.
Fall and Revival of Wahhabism
1881- House of Saud expelled from the Riyadh region. But it revivies under Abdul Rahman Ibn Al Saud and spreads Wahhabism
1891- Abdul Rahman Ibn Al Saud of the House of Saud is overthrown at Diraiya by the House Of Rashid which has Ottoman backing.
-the Deobandi and Ahl-i-Hadith movements rise in northern India- in an attempt to rally and purify Islam against British and western colonial forces. Both are opposed to the Shia.
1894- Mali- Tuareg rebels declare a jihad against the French following their occupation of the city of Tombouctou in January
1902 -Abdul Aziz ibn Abdul Rahman al Saud re-conquers the Najd from the Ottomans, reviviing Wahhabism militarily and politically through the Ikhwan Wahhabist movement. Wahabbis mount new attacks on hypocrites, laxity, non-blievers. The criteria for belief is strict adherecne to the Sharia.
1905-6- Abdul Aziz Ibn Abdul Rahman takes east central Arabia.
1913- Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, commander of the Whhabist Ikhwan army invades the Shia region of Al-Hasa and attempts to impose Wahhabism.
Mohammed Qutb
1906-66- Sayyid Mohammed Qutb. Muslim ideologue. Born in Asyut, Egypt. Trained as a teacher in Cairo.
1920s- Salafis teach that since Mohammed was chosen by the community, leadership of Islam cannot be hereditary.
1925- Ibn Saud's Ikhwan Wahhabists destroy the Jannat al Baghi cemetery in Medina, a Shia holy place where the daughter of the Prophet and the 3nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Shia imams are buried.
1926- The Ikhwan resorts to the systematic killing of Shia.
1927- May 20- British lay down treaty of Jeddah giving the Hijaz and Jajd to Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud. The Ikhwan, sends a Wahhabi recolt against Ibn Saud for using telephone,s radios, cars etc.
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi Domestication of Wahhabism.
1928- Muslim Brotherhood founded by Hassan al Banna in Egypt for moral and social reform.
1930s- House of Saud becomes rich on oil wealth, moderates its belief in Wahhabism; the pogroms against the Shia are stopped; instead the Shia suffer discrimination and marginalization.
1932- the vast desert region whose heart is the Najd bcomes the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
-in Mecca, the Supreme Religious Council continues to be the official head of Wahabbism.
1939- Muslim brother hood becomes a political movement in response to the Arab uprising against the British in Palestine (1936) and Egyptian protest against the the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty (1936). The brotherhood declares that the Quran and the Hadith are sufficient as a social political code for any time and place.
1940- the Muslim brotherhood has 500 branches each with a mosque and social services.
1948- Qutb is sent to university in Colorado, USA by his ministry. He is appalled at what he sees as America's decadence and depravity.
1948-49- members of the Muslim Brotherhood fight in the Palestine War, recruiting Egyptian officers and gaining military experience. The Brotherhood turns against Egypt which is blames for the 1948-49 war.
1948- Egypt declares martial law and bans the Brotherhood.
-Egyptian premier, Fahmi Nokrashi Pasha, is assassinated by the Brotherhood.
1949- Hassan a Banna, leader of the Egyptian Brotherhood is assassinated.
1950- with the lifting of martial law, the Brotherhood enters mainstream Egyptian politics.
1951- Qutb returns to Egypt but his anti-American views get him expelled from the education ministry. He joins the Muslim Brootherhood. In his writings he says that America should be placed under a sentence of death.
1952- the Brotherhood supports Egypt in rejecting the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and participates in the Cairo riots.
1952- the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) overthrows the regime in Egypt.
Egypt bans the Muslim Brotherhood.
1954- Egypt's RCC bans the Muslim Brotherhood. Qutb and other members are held in a concentration camp. He writes his defining work, Maalim Fi Al Tariq- "Signposts on the Road"- which divides all social systems into "The Order of Islam" and "The Order of Ignorance." The book remains a text book for radical Islam.
23rd Oct.- after Brotherhood members attempt to assassinate President Nasser, the plotters are hanged, many are imprisoned or driven into exile in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
1957- birth of Osama Bin laden, son of a bricklayer from South Yemen. Bin Laden's father settles in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and becomes a wealthy construction magnate.
Qutb Becomes Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1964- Qutb and cohorts are released from detainment in Egypt. "Signposts on the Road" is smuggled out of Egypt. Though he is non-violent, the Muslim Brotherhood promotes him into the leadership to avenge their persecution in Egypt.
-Nasser tries to include the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab Socialist Union to combat Communism.
-repeated attempts by the Brotherhood to assassinate Nasser.
1966-Sayyid Muhammed Qutb is put on trial in Egypt. He states that the nations of the Middle East are a western fabrication and that actually Islam has no nations, only a Community of Believers.
-Sayyid Muhammed Qutb and other Brotherhood leaders are executed.
Muslim Brotherhood gains from 1967 War with Israel.
1967- Egypt decisively defeated in war with Israel.
1968- popular feeling that Egypt had received divine retribution for Arab Socialism causes Nasser to grant a general amnesty to the Muslim Brotherhood.
-new Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, attempts to integrate the Brotherhood into the mainstrem.
1975 (circa) Saalafis active in Kuwait where they want a republican, democratic regime.
Egypt's Sadat Bans the Muslim Brotherhood causing it to Radicalize.
1976- fearing the expanding power of the Brotherhood, President Sadat bans it from Egyptian elections. 15 Brotherhood members are elected as members of other parties causing a radical wing to split off in protest.
-the Muslim Brotherhood radicalizes and turns against Sadat's modernization and pro-Israel and pro-West policies.
Uprising against Saudis; beginning of Careers of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri.
1978- Ayman Zawahiri graduates as as a surgeon from Cairo's University's medical school.
-Bin Laden graduates with a degree in civil engineering from King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.
1979- armed uprising against rulers of Saudi Arabia at the Grand Mosque- assisted by Salafis from Kuwait. The young engineering graduate, Bin laden, regards them as true Muslims. Salafis have since become active in Kuwait politics.
1979- Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Begin sign the Egyptian-Istaeli peace Treaty. But his new peace costs Egypt membership in the Arab League.
-due to the unpopularity of the treaty at home, Sadat becomes increasingly autocratic.
Roots of the Al Nusra Front.
1980- Abu Musab al Sur (aka Mustafa Setmariam Nasar and the intellectual godfather of Al Nusra) joins the Combatant Vanguard organization, a radical offshoot of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood which is at the forefront in the Islamic uprising in Hama, Syria.
Abdullah Azzam's 'Bureau of Service' in Pakistan for Afghan Jihad- antecedent to Al Qaeda.
1980- Abdullah Azzam founds Maktab al Khidmat (Bureau of Service) in Peshawar, Pakistan.
-Pakistani ISI and American CIA camps along the Afghan-Pakistan border join in training non-Afhgan Mujehadeen to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. They use US army training manuals translated into Urdu, Arabic and Persian, stressing nationalism and Islam.
-Bin Laden visits Peshawar and lobbies family and friends to support the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan.
-Osama Bin Laden goes back to Saudi Arabia, raises large sums from family connections and returns to Pakistan with members of the family business, the Saudi Binlandin Group.
Bin laden leads non-Afghan Mujehadeen in Afghan war against the Soviets.
-Bin laden becomes leader of the non-Afghan Mujehadeen, working alongside the CIA and the ISI.
1980s- Somalia fights Islamic fundamentalists in its north and the Patriotic Front in the south.
Zawahiri arrested in Assassination of Sadat.
1981- Oct 6- a radical wing of the Muslim Brotherhood assassinates President Sadat. Ayman al Zawahiri is among those jailed in the plot.
Al Sur- the Grandfather of Al Nusra.
1982- Al Sur joins in the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood at Hama which is crushed by Syrian President Hafez al Assad, killing tens of thousands.
1984- Egyptian President Mubarak maintains elections ban on Muslim Brotherhood. Muslim Brotherhood members get elected as members of the Neo-Wafd party.
-the Muslim Brotherhood, uses highly educated members to dominate syndicates of lawyers, doctors, journalists and engineers.
-Zawahiri is released from prison in Egypt.
Bin Laden Works for Pak-Afghan Bureau of Service.
-in Pakistan, Bin Laden comes under the influence of Abdulla Azzam, head of the jihadi Bureau of Service. He vets non-Afghan volunteers, supervises road construction and refurbishing caves for storage. He also engages in guerilla sorties.
1986- Bureau of Service sets up a branch in the US at the farooq Mosque in Brooklyn.
-Bin laden oversees construction of a sophsiticated tunnel complex for storage, supplies and refuge at Khost on the Afghan-Pakistan border. The complex is near Tora Bora.
Zawahiri joins the Anti-Soviet Afghan Struggle.
-Zawahiri travels to Pakistan to join the medical corps of the Mujehadeen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. He is stationed in peshawar where he sets up a branch of Islamic Jihad.
1987- The Muslim Brotherhood gains singificant power in the Egyptian parliament by allying itself with socialist parties. Brotherhood deputies demand an end to the Israeli-Egyptian treaty, to all ties with the United States and the application of Sharia law.
1988- Bin Laden and Azzam make 'MAK' or The Service Bureau offical. Bin Laden wants to advance non-military operations world-wide- while Azzam prefers a military strategy.
Al Qaeda is new name for the Service Bureau upon murder of Azzam and victory in Afghanistan.
1989- February- Bin Laden declares withdrawal of Soviets from Afghanistan a victory for the Jihad.
November- Azzam assassinated; Pakistan's ISI is a suspect. Bin Laden, assisted by Muhammad Atef and Abu Ubaidah al Banshiri, takes over, renaming Maktab al Khidmat 'Al Qaeda'- 'The Base', with a plan to expand the Soviet Jihad into an international Jihad from headquarters in Peshawar. The prime target is US interests world-wide with Al Qaeda launching its own attacks or sponsoring similar outfits to attack Al Qaeda targets.
Al Mohammed, trained as a US commando at Fort Bragg, leaves the US and joins Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan and pakistan.
Bin Laden abandons Afghan Civil war for Saudi Arabia.
-Bin Laden resturns to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, discouraged by the inter-ethnic Afghan civil war.
1990- When Iraq invades Kuwait, Bin Laden offers to set up a citizen militia to defend Saudi Arabia but the kingdom rejects his offer.
Bin Laden Repudiates US bases in Saudi Arabia for First Gulf War.
1991 -the US responds to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait by setting up military bases to protect Saudi Arabia's oil fields at Hama. Bin Laden swears to avenge what he sees as US violation and occupation of Saudi Arabia.
-Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood supports Saddam Hussein.
Bin Laden Sets up Al Qaeda in Sudan; active also in Mogadishu and the Balkans.
1991-1996- Bin Laden, based in Sudan, sets up a series of corporate entities, running Al Qaeda as if it were a corporation. It is ruled by a Shura or Council of Twelve, with four executive committees: military (commanded by Muhammed Atef) business, Islamic Studies , Media, and Public Relations.
-Al Qaeda begins launching international operations from Sudan.
1992-93- Bin Laden intervenes in civil war in Somalia. His lieuenant, Atef, trains Somai tribes opposed to UN intervention.
Al Qaeda appears in Somalia in midst of clan war.
1992-3- as part of Osama Bin Laden’s Sudan-based al Qaeda support for Somali Muslims, 9/11 terrorist Mohammed Atef trains Somali tribal guerillas opposed to UN intervention
-Ban Laden accused by US of complicity in American defeat in Mogadishu.
-the Deobandi movement, originally a Sunni anti-colonial force born in British India, has spread from Bagladesh to Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. Deobandi teaching leads to the formation if the Taliban.
1993- Al Qaeda has about 1,000 members, mostly Afghan veteran Jihadis.
It supports 5,000 Arab fighters defending Muslims in the Balkans during the Bosnian Civil War (1992-1995)
First World Trade Centre Attack Fails. Al Qaeda spreads globally.
-Al Qaeda-linked bomb blast at World Trade Centre, New York.
-Al Qaeda has agents in Albania, Britain, Pakistan, Holland, Malasia, Lebanon, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Enirates.
-Al Qaeda forms loose associations with similar outfits in Ageria, Chechnya, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, Lebanon, Libya, the Phulippines, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Yemen, Syria and Tunisia.
1994- Al Zawahiri joins Bin Laden in Khartoum Sudan, becomes his mentor.
-Saudi government revokes Bin Laden's citizenship and freezes his assets of $20-25 million
-attempt on Bin Laden's life. He founds the Committee for Advice and Reform. The CAR is intended to promote preaceful reform in Saudi Arabia.
1995- finally allowed to campaign openly in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood runs 150 candidates, all of whom lose.
-Islamabad- truck bombing kills 18- Egypt holds Zawahiri responsible.
-CIA sets up a "Bin Laden station".
Bin Laden Expelled from Sudan. Zawahiri heads Egyptian wing of Al Qaeda.
-1996- Sudan expels Bin Laden for his verbal attacks on the king of Saudi Arabia and puts him under surveillance in order that Sudan be removed from the U.S. list of terror states.
-botched Egyptian operations by the EIJ (Egyptian islamic Jihad, led by Ayman al Zawahiri), the Egyptian wing of Al Qaeda, get the EIJ expelled from Sudan.
Al Qaeda Returns to Afghanistan. Victorious Taliban Gives protection to Al Qaeda.
1996- Bin Laden moves Al Qaeda headquarters from Somalia to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, though Jalalabad is still outside Taliban control.
-Shalh Kaled first suggests an attack on New York's World Trade towers to Bin Laden.
Sept. -- Taliban takes Kabul and Jalalbad in civil war. Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, gives protection and freedom of action to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda after Bin Laden swears loyalty; but also to accommodate, former anti-Soviet Jihadists who had been expelled from their home countries and unemployed Jihadists from the recent Bosnian, Kashmir and Chechen wars. A veteran Al Qaeda unit fights alongside the Taliban.
-Al Qaeda's 3,000 fighters are known as the Taliban's 55th Brigade. Al Qaeda has 45,000 adherents in 60 countries.
-Al Qaeda announces plans to expel foreigners from Islamic lands.
1997- Zawahiri joins Bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda Bombs US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam.
1998- August- Al Qaeda bombs US embassies inNairobi and Dar As Salaam, killing 227.
-Wshington places Bin Laden on its 10 most wanted list with a $5 million rewaerd on his head. and demands the Taliban hand him over. Mullah Omae refuses.
Union Of Islamic Courts in Somalia.
1998-2000 four sharia courts in Somalia bond together.
2000- the Union of Islamic Courts. Is founded in Somalia.
Bin Laden Releases Fatwa against Americans and Jews.
1999: Jordanian Sunni militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi flees his country after a failed hotel bombing and moves his group, known then as Tawhid and Jihad, to Afghanistan.
-Bin Laden releases a Fatwa calling for attacks on US citizens. Zawahiri joins his Islamic Jihad with Bin Laden's World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews. Zawahiri is in charge of ideology. Charter members are Abu Yasser Rafia Ahmad Taha, Mir Hamza and Faz ul Rahman. Among ists grievances are the UN sanctions against Iraq, US military bases in Saudi Arabia, the existence of Israel and its domination of the Palestinians. Its aims are the killing of any American or Israeli, the liberation of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Mosque in Mecca andto overthrow all the regimes in Muslim countries that supported western interests.
-Nov. 4- a US grand jury returns a 238 count indictment for murder and other charges against Bin Laden and Zawahiri.
-Bin Laden gives the go-ahead to Sheikh Khaled to organize abd lauch the attack on the WTC in New York.
1999- 20 members of the Muslim Brotherhood arrested for plotting to overthrow the government and ifiltrating professional syndicates.
-9/11 plans finalized by the Al Qaeda military committee.
Early Stages of 9/11 Attacks.
-a group of highly educated, disciplined Islamists living in Hamburg and with experience of the West travel to to Afhganistan to meet Bin Laden to plan the attack on the the WTC.
Syrian forerunners to Al Nusra.
2000 -Syrian Jihadists fighting alongside Al Qaeda leader Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan.
Al Qaeda Bombs USS Cole in Yemen.
2000- October- Al Qaeda bombs the USS Cole, docked in Aden, Yemen. US holds Bin Laden responsible.
-the Muslim Brotherhood wins 17 seats in the Egyptian parliament.
Dec. -the US has the UN Security Council demand that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden on pain of an arms embargo on Afghanistan. Mullah Omar refuses.
2001- Abu Mohammed Jolani (Golani) (later to lead Al Nusra) under the command of Al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al Zawahiri.
2001- Feb.- public trial in US of 4 conspirators in bombing of Kenyan and Ethiopian embassies enlarges Bin Laden's following in the Muslim World.
-Al Qaeda 9/11 hijackers begin arriving in the US
-the hijack leader, Mohammed Atta meets Binalshibh in Spain to work out final details of WTC attack.
Al Qaeda Executes 9/11 Attack on World Trade Towers.
2001- Sept 11- Al Qaeda operatives fly two passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade centre in Manhattan, killing about 3,000. A third plane is crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth crashes in a field in Pennsylvania, killing all aboard.
-the US names Osama Bin Laden and Zawahiri as conspirators in the 9/11 plots. In vain, the US demands that Mullah Omar hand over Bin Laden.
2001- Sept-- 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on New York-: President Musharaff Sides with Washington against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, under severe pressure from Assistant Secretary of State Armitage. This, however, gains Pakistan badly needed international loans.
Oct 7- Bin Laden and Al Zawahiri release a 20 minute statement claiming responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
Nov. Mohammed Atef, Al Qaeda military commander killed by drone strike in Afghanistan.
Dec.12 - Zacarias Musawi, a Moroccan born French citizen is the first suspect to be charged in the 9/11 attacks.
Zarqawi, the Progenitor of ISIS.
2000 -Syrian Jihadists fighting alongside Al Qaeda leader Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan.
2002- Musab al Zarqawi arrives in Iraq and founds Hai al Jamià Baghdad. Syrians who had been with Zarqawi in Herat, Afghanistan are sent to build network branches in Syria and Lebanon. Zarqawi would later exercise control from Iraq.
Yemen Cracks down on Al Qaeda.
-US and Yemen agree that mountain homeland of the Bin Ladens is a prime region for terror training camps.
2002- Feb. Yemen expels over 100 Islamic scholars, many of them English and French nationals in a a move against Al Qaeda suspects.
Execution of Daniel Pearl.
2002- Feb 1- Wall Street Journalist Reporter Daniel Pearl decapitated in Karachi by a Pakistani Al-Qaeda-linked organization led byAhmed Omar Saeed Sheikh.
March 2-- Abu Zubaydah, Al Qaeda's chief field and recruitment officer and Bin Laden's number 3 man, is arrested in Pakistan.
April 11- 18 are killed in attack outside a Tunisian synagogue when Al Qaeda explodes an oil tanker.
June 11- Jose Padilla is arrested landing in US from Pakistan and accused of hatching a 'dirty bomb' plot.
Sept 11- Ramzi Bimalshibh, a high-ranking Al Qaeda member and one of the 9/11 plotters is arrested in Karachi.
Oct. -the supertanker Limburg is heavily damaged off the coast of Yemen in attack. Al Qaeda is suspected.
The Bali Night Club Bombing and US and Allied Invasion of Afghanistan.
Oct 12- Indonesia's Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiya carries out massive attack on a Bali nightclub killing 202.
Nov.- US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan. Taliban driven from Kabul. US discovers video tape in which Bin Laden names 9 of the 9/11 hijackers during a meeeting with radical Jeddah cleric Khalid Harbi.
-Bin Ladin escapes to Tora Bora and tribal area of Waziristan.
Nov. 28 -Al Qaeda claims responsibility for an attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombassa, Kenya, killing 16
9/11 Planner Sheikh Khaled Arrested
2003- March 1- Khaled Sheikh Mohammed- Bin Laden's architect of 9/11 is arrested in a CIA-Pakistani operation in Islamabad.
-Washington asks the Pakistan's ISI to hand over al Qaeda militants, but the ISI only hands over foreign Al Qaeda foot soldiers.
-Mounir Moutassadek is found guilty by a German court in Hamburg of helping to to mount the 9/11 attacks. He gets 12 years.
US Invasion of Iraq.
2003- US Invasion of Iraq: "The link between al-Nusra and the AQI is logical and should not be surprising. Al-Nusra is formed of fighters who took part in the post-2003 armed campaign against US forces in Iraq, jihadists who essentially crossed into Iraq from Syria to commit terrorist atrocities against US and Iraqi targets. Most of AQI's (Al Qaeda in Iraq) fighters were foreign jihadists from neighbouring countries, in particular Syria. Al-Nusra's leader, Jawlani, has himself acknowledged that he fought in Iraq alongside AQI."- Rusi.org, April, 2013.
-Syria becomes the pipeline for sending jihadists into Iraq for the Zarqawi network, with safe houses kept by Syrian jihadists.
August- Embryonic Al Qaeda in Iraq begins a campaign of suicide bombing.
Al Qaeda-linked Attacks in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Istanbul
May 12- at least 34 killed in an Al Qaeda attack on foreign luxury compounds in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
May 16- Salafiya Jihadia, an al-Qaeda-linked Moroccan cell, kills 45 in suicide bombings on international targets in Casablanca, Morocco.
June 27 -Ali Abdul Rahman al Gamdi arrested in Riyadh suicide attacks.
Dec. 15- 23 killed in suicide attacks on two Istanbul synagogues.
Dec 20- 27 killed in double suicide bombing on the British Consulate and a British bank in Istanbul.
Pakistan.
-2003-2004- winter. The Pakistan army launches assaults against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Waziristan
2004--March and June offensives against al Qaeda in the Afghan border area.
Abu Musab al Zarqawi prepares to lead Al Qaeda in Iraq.
2004- Feb 9- US discovers plot for Al Qaeda entry into Iraq by Abu Musab al Zarqawi and plans to turn Sunni and Shia against one another.
2004: April Zarqawi renames his group al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), pledges allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and steps up a deadly campaign against U.S. and Iraqi targets. AQI’s ranks swell as Arab jihadists enter the country to fight against the U.S., and the group also becomes notorious for abducting foreigners and filming their execution.
The Madrid Train Bombings.
March 11- Madrid train bombings by a group linked or sympathetic to Al Qaeda kill 191.
April 15- A Bin laden tape offers a truce to all European countries that withdraw from the US's alleged war against Muslims.
May 17- head of the Iraqi Governing Council killed in Al Qaeda attack. US traces Zarqawi to a number of attacks incuding beheading of a US hostage.
Al Qaeda Attacks and Hostage Beheading in Saudi Arabia.
May 30- 22 killed by Al Qaeda-linked group in foreigners' compound at Khobar, Saudi Arabia before the compound is stormed by Saudi commandos.
June 18- US hostage Paul Johnson beheaded by Al Qaeda group in Saudi Arabia. Abdul Aziz al Muqin, head of Al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia, killed by security forces.
Algeria, Kenya, Pakistan, Yemen.
June- Abdelmalik Droukdel announces his arrival with a truck bomb at the Algeria’s most important electrical production facility and focuses on associating the GSPC with Al Qaeda. . “The Algerian military says he cut his teeth in the 1990s as a member of the Armed Islamic Group’s feared Ahoual or “horror” company, blamed for some of the most gruesome massacres of Algeria’s civil war.” NYT
-GSPC (al-Qaeda-linked Salafist Group for Call and Combat) declares war on all foreign nationals and interests in Algeria.
July 30-2004 -capture of Ahmed Khalfin Ghalani, Al Qaeda operative linked to 1998 Kenya US embassy bombing.
Sept 26- Amjad Farooqi, wanted in connection to AlQaeda murder of Daniel Pearl, killed in shoot-out with Pakistani Police. Farooqi is closely linked to Aby Faraj Al Libbi, Al Qaeda chief for Pakistan.
Sept 29- 2004- A Yemeni court senteces two Al Qaeda operatives, Al-Bashiri and Al Badawi to death for the attack on the USS Cole. Four others get prison sentences.
Zarqawi's Allegiance to Bin laden.
2004 -Oct- Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, leader of "Monotheism and Jihad" swears allegiance to Osama Bin Laden.
Oct 29- days prior to US elections, Bin aden realeases video tape warning of more attacks on th US.
2004-2005- Pakistan- due to losses in the Waziristan offensive against the Taliban and al Qaeda, Pakistan makes various peace deals with local Taliban-supporting tribes. The Taliban effectively control Waziristan.
-after Amjad Farooqi is killed in shoot out with police in Karachi, Matiur Rehman takes his place as Al Qaeda planning director. Matiur Rehman us alleged to have been involved in bombing of the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.
-2005- Abu Musab al-Sur, noted jihadi theorist followed by Al Nusra- " al-Suri was arrested in Pakistan (2005), but for some reason was released and handed over to Syria when the rebel uprising began (2011). It is believed that he freely resides somewhere within Syria’s borders and his teachings are heavily influencing the strategies of the Al Nusra Front".- SOFREP, March 24, 2013.
-Zaraqawi's Al Qaeda in Iraq becomes the Mujahedeen Shura Council after various armed factions are integrated.
2005: Senior AQI figure Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri (aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Abu Du’a) – later described by Iraqi law enforcement as an Islamic law PhD, and the group’s “spiritual leader” during this period – is arrested and held at the U.S. military-run Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. (Reports differ on whether he was held for one, four or five years, and details of his release remain hazy.)
2005- 14 April -Kamil Bourgass, Al Qaeda suspect found guilty of murdering a police officer and threatening to spead ricin in Birtain, gets 17 year sentence.
-violence escalates in Iraq, some of it sectarian, most of it still involving the US military campaign against allied Sunni, Baathist and Al Qaeda militants.
April 22- Al Qaeda suspects go on trial in Madrid court for helping to plan 9/11 bombings.
May 4- Faraj Al Libbi, Al Qaeda's number three after Zawahiri and head of operations in Pakistan is arrested by pakistani police.
July 7, 2005 London Underground Bombings.
July 7- Al-Qaeda inspired group brings off London underground bombings, killing 56.
July 21- four more London underground bombings fail to detonate. Within days, four suspects are identified and arrested.
Sharm-al-Sheikh Bombings
July 23- 61 killed in AlQaeda-linked bombings in the Egyptian Red Sea rfesort of Sharm al-Sheikh. One suspect is killed by police in a shootout with Islamists.
August 19- rockets are fired at the Jordanian port city of Aqaba and at the nearby Israeli port city of Eliat.
Sept. 26- Madrid Court sentences 18 men to prison terms for planning the 9/11 attacks.
Pakistan
(July 2005)- Matuir Rehman involved in another plot on Musharraf- disrupted by police.
Nov. 2005- Hamza Rabia, Al Qaeda International Operations commander killed by drone attack in North Waziristan.
-Dec. 2005- Abu faraj al-Libbi- al Qaeda leader No. 3- involved in an attempt on Musharraff at Rawalpindi. Libbi is arrested in Mardan. Matiur Rehman is wanted in connection ith the same plot.
Algeria: GSPC links up, merges with Al Qaeda.
Dec 8- the extremist Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) plans to set up an Al-Qaeda branch in the Maghreb countries as a base for attacks to be launched on the countries that support US administration.
2006- January- Al Qaeda in the Maghreb is officially formed from the Algerian GSPC, the Moroccan GICM (responsible for the Casablanca and Madrid bombings in 2003 and 2004 respectively), and other Tunisian elements.
2006- January 19- Bin Laden releases tape offering US the choice of a truce or new attacks.
Sacred Shia Al Askiriya Mosque blown up by Al Qaeda to iginite Sectarian war in Iraq
February- Al Qaeda in Iraq operatives blow up the Al Askiriya Mosque in Samarra, sacred to Iraqi Shia, deliberately setting off an ethnic bloodbath between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
May 3- Zakarais Moussaoui is sentenced to life in US court. He is the sold person charged in the 9/11 attacks.
Zarqawi killed in targeted US air attack near Baghdad.
June 7- Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al Zarqawi is killed in a targeted US air strike northeast of Baghdad.
July 12- British-Pakistani terrorists arrested for plan to bomb 12 airliners during an Atlantic crossing.
Somalia
July- Osama Bin Laden announces al Qaeda will oppose with force any intervention in Somalia where he backs the idea of an Islamic state.
Sept 3- Al Qaeda in Iraq's number 2 man, Jama Al Saedi is captured by Iraqi authorities. Al Saedi planned the bombing of the Al Askiriya shrine.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Sept 11- Ayman Zawahiri of Al Qaeda announces the formation of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
Zawahiri announces creation of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) from merger.
Sept 14- Ayman Al Zawahiri announces the merger of the Algerian militant group, the GSPC with Al Qaeda, creating Al Qaeda in the Maghredb (AQIM)
ISI before ISIS.
2006- Oct 6- Al Qaeda in Iraq becomes the Islamic State Of Iraq (ISI) founded as an umbrella group for Sunni militant organizations including Al Qaeda. After the death of Zarqawi, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi take the lead of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Al Zawi heads Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Oct. 2006: AQI renames itself Islamic State of Iraq, and its leader is identified as Hamid Dawud al-Zawi (aka Abu-Omar al-Baghdadi), an Iraqi.
2006- Oct 6- rhe Islamic State Of Iraq (ISI) founded as an umbrella group for Sunni militant organizations including Al Qaeda. After the death of Zarqawi, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir and Hamid Dawud al-Zawi (AKA Abu Omar al-Baghdadi) take the lead of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
-"Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, to this day considered by ISIS as one of its founding fathers, was an Al-Qaeda operative of Egyptian origin, born in 1968, and was close to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. In 1982 he joined the Egyptian jihadi organization headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri and was sentenced to death by Egypt in 1994 (apparently in absentia). Between 2001 and 2002 he underwent training in Afghanistan where he met Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He specialized in preparing IEDs used in Afghanistan and Iraq...: -Crethiplethi-
Pakistan
-Oct. -many of the British Pakistanis later suspected in the August 2006 attempted airline bombings in London travelled to Muzaffarabad as humanitarian earthquake relief in Jamiat ud Dawa, whose umbrella organization is Lashakr e Toiba. Membrs of the al Qaeda-linked Jundullah, a Pakistani terror group took them to training camps in Waziristan before returning to relief camps.
Tunisia
Dec 2006 to January 2007- (Dec. 23, Jan 3) Algerian Salafist groups engage Tunisian police and army units with 14 terrorists and some police killed.
Somalia
Dec.
4- US General John Abizaid visits Adis Ababba. The United States,
worried about assistance being given to Somali Islamists by Al Qaeda,
has covertly backed Ethiopia.
2007: AQIM in the Sahel.
February- news reports point to Al Qaeda training camps in the Sahel from Senegal to Ethiopia with plans to attack targets in Europe.
Feb 13- GSPC claims responsibility for car bombings in Boumerdas and Tizi Ouzou, on the Berber region of Kabylia in eastern Algeria. (This was a center of resistance during the Algerian war).
-Feb 16 - in the mountain region of Qashra near the town of Skikda, Alergian police kill 26 and arrest 35 militants in response to the Feb 13 car bombings.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (GSPC) : terror operations in Algeria and Morocco.
Feb 20- Moroccan police search for Hmam Bilal et Bel Hachmi and Mohamed Rida who are accused of having ties with groups including the Algeria-based al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb,
March 11- suicide bombing in Casablanca internet cafe.
2007- March 15- Mohammed Sheikh Khaled admits to planning the 9/11 attacks and 30 others at a hearing at Guantanamo Bay.
March 27- at a hearing at Gunatanamo Bay, Australian convert to Islam David Hicks, confesses to support for terrorist operations.
April 10- three suicide blasts kill and wound police in raid on Casablanca safe house.
April 11- Algiers- bombings of the police station and prime minister’s office claim 17 lives. Claimed by Al Qaeda.
April 14- two suicide bombings on US diplomatic offices in Casablanca.
April 27- high Al Qaeda operative, Al Hadi Al Iraqi, is captured by the US on his way to take over Al Qaeda operations in Iraq.
Pakistan
-March-April- 250 killed in clashes between South Waziristan tribesmen and al Qaeda militants.
Syria
2007- Syrian government cracks down on the late Zarqawi`s Syrian jihadists and safe houses. The fighters leave Syria for refuge in Iraq.
IRAQ: US troop surge against Al Qaeda.
2007: Anbar-based tribal “awakening” campaign against ISI (AQI) and other militants and “surge” of troop reinforcements sent in by President Bush helps to stem the tide of violence, marking a turning point in the Iraq conflict.-U.S. General Petraeus adopts sophisticated, modern counterinsurgency methods against Sunni insurgents as part of the troop surge. US marines make tactical alliances with Sunni Sheikhs and other former nsurgents in Anbar province who are tired of al Qaeda's excesses and violations of Islam. The Anbar Salvation Front becomes the first of several local Sunni paramilitary organizations to aly itself with the U.S..
-in the fall, despite the success of the Sunni local self-defense organizations in Anbar and Diyala, fighting al Qaeda alongside U.S. forces, al Qaeda manages to assassinate some of their leaders.
Algeria
June 11- suicide truck bomb kills soldiers at military barracks near Algiers. GSPC claims responsibility.
Life Sentences for the London underground bombers.
July 11- four men arrested in the July 21 2005 London underground bombings receive life sentences.
Sept 6- suicide blast kills twenty prior to vistit of President Boutefilka near Algiers.
Sept. 7-8- 50 die in two conseutive bombings in Algeria. Al Qaeda in the Maghreb claims responsibility.
Sept 8- GSPC claims responsibility for bombing of military barracks, killing 37 at Dellys, Algeria.
Oct 7- Zareg Zoheir, mastermind of GSPC suicide bombings killed by Algerian police.
Pakistan
2007- Pakistan rejects US claims that al Qaeda members are hiding in Pakistan.
Oct 18- Pakistan PPP parry leader Benazir Bhutto survives bombing attack as she arrives in Karachi, returning from exile.
Three get life in Madrid train bombings.
Oct 31- Madrid Court sentences three men to life in the Madrid train bombings.
Dec. 12- suicide bombings on Algeria's supreme court and on an Algiers UN agency kill 40.
Dec. 27- Benazir Bhutto is killed in a bombing attack on her motorcade while campainging in Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistani authorities say Waziristan Al Qaeda leader Baitullah Mehsud is responsible.
2008- Jan. 29- Abu Haith Al Libi, Al Qaeda military commander killed in drone strike in North Waziristan.
March 31- at Guantanamo Bay, Al Qaeda operative Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani is charged with crimes in the 1998 Kenya Embassy bombing.
Change of Tactics by Al Qaeda.
2008- having alienated Sunnis in Iraq and driven their fighters into the arms of the Americans, Al Qaeda changes its strategy and rhetoric to attract local support. Al Nusra's local effectiveness in Syria is an indirect result.
-Oct 5- Abu Qaswarah, second in command of ISI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) is killed by US military in Mosul.
Khaled, architect of 9/11 in trial in US.
June 6- Mohammed Sheikh Khaled, self-confessed planner of the 9/11 attacks, tells a US tribunal at Gunatanmo Bay that he wants to die as a martyr.
July 6- Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni and Osama Bin Laden's former driver, is convicted of war crimes at a tribunal in Gunatanamo Bay.
-July 28- Abu Khebab al Masri, Al Qaeda expert on weapons of mass destruction killed in drone strike.
Aug, 22-26 Shabab Islamist militia takes the port of Kismayo, Somalia's 3rd largest city, leaving 70 dead with plans to join Al Qaeda.
-Fall- Najibullah Zazi and three others receive al Qaeda training in Afghanistan; will soon plot to attack subway stations in New York City.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula arises from merger.
2009- Jan-March- the Yemeni and Saudi affiliates of Al Qaeda merge into Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula, affiliated by the Yemen-based US-Muslim preacher, Al Awlaki. The Yemeni and Saudi affiliates of Al Qaeda merge into Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula. AQAP formed from a merger of al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi branches and led by Nasir ul-Wuhayshi. The Saudi group had been effectively suppressed by the Saudi government, forcing its members to seek sanctuary in Yemen. It is believed to have several hundred members.
Feb. -Yemeni government Announces release of five Al Qaeda suspects on condition of good behaviour.
Somalia
2009 January - Ethiopia completes the withdrawal of its troops. Fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked radical Islamist al-Shabab militia take control of the town of Baidoa, formerly a key stronghold of the transitional government.
March 19- Osama Bin Laden releases tape in which he urges Islamists to overthrow President Ahmed.
Al Qaeda in the Maghreb.
2009 May - Algeria begins sending military equipment to Mali in preparation for a joint operation against Al Qaeda in the Maghreb
Somalia
2009 June - Somalia's security minister and more than 20 other people are killed in a suicide bombing at a hotel in Beledweyne, north of the capital Mogadishu. Al Shabab, working closely with Al Qaeda, declares responsibility. President Ahmed declares a state of emergency as violence intensifies. Somali officials appeal to neighbouring countries to send troops to Somalia, as government forces continue to battle Islamist insurgents.
Lebanon
July- Lebanese army arrests 10 suspected Al Qaeda operatives believed to be planning attacks on UN peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon.
Al Baghdadi, head of Al Qaeda in Iraq killed near Tikrit.
Dec 2009- the Islamic State of Iraq, sometimes called an al Qaeda franchise, claims responsibility for a mass of bombings in Baghdad killing 127, as well as other killings in August and October killing 240.
2010- January- according to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Al Qaeda is planning to destabilize Pakistan and ingite a nuclear war between Pakistan and India.
2010- April 18- leader of ISI or Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, killed outside Tikrit.
"Since its effective creation in 2003, under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, ISI had been happy to use al-Qaida’s brand name and its money, but often ignored pleas for closer communication with central command – even when they came from Bin Laden himself. In 2010, they crossed a line: ISI appointed a new leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, without prior approval from al-Qaida, whose senior leaders knew almost nothing about the man – where he had come from, his military experience, whether he could be trusted." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida.
Failed Times Square bombing.
May- Faisal Sahazad is arrested in a failed attempt to bomb Times Square using a van packed with explosives.
Yemen
2010- President Saleh says he will open talks with Al Qaeda militants provided they renounce violence.
2010- June 19- Four al Qaeda gunmen dressed in women’s clothing attacked an intelligence headquarters in Aden and freed several suspected al Qaeda militants. On June 21 Yemen announced the arrest of the attack’s mastermind. Security forces investigating the attack made several arrests on June 25 in Aden during house-to-house searches. On July 11, AQAP claimed that its Martyr Jamil al Anbari Brigade carried out the attack. An AQAP statement stated the attack killed 24 officers and soldiers, deviating from the government’s report of 11 killed. AQAP also denied that the government had captured those responsible for the attack
Mauretania
2010 Jul 24, French-backed Mauritanian military operations against al Qaeda fighters in the Sahara desert wound up after four days of hunting Islamists deep inside Mali.
Aug 12- Osama Bin Laden's former cook and driver, Ibrahim al Qosi, is sentenced to 14 years in prison for providing material support to terrorism. A plea bargain is pending.
2010- Sep 17, The Mauritanian army launched an offensive against the North African branch of al-Qaida in neighboring Mali. At least 12 militants died and five Mauritanians were killed in the operation, which was launched inside northern Mali with permission
-Sept. -Najiibullah Zazi arrested for attempting to bomb subway stataions in new York City.
Conviction of would-be London Airline bombers
-Sept- conviction by a London court of the three Al Qaeda-linked bombers who conspired to blow transatlantic passenger jets out of the air using smuggled liquid explosives.
- Sept- Drone missile strike in Pakistan kills Ilyas Kashmiri, Al Qaeda military commander and head of the Al Qaeda-affiliated Kashmir insurgent group. Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami.
Taliban Severs Ties with Al Qaeda.
-Taliban has severed its last ties with al Qaeda. 100 Al Qaeda fighter remain in Afghanistan.
Yemen
Oct- government troops under US pressure fighting Al Qaeda in difficult, rugged terrain of South Yemen, particularly in the Abyan region.
Al Qaeda Massacres Christians
October 31, 2010- 52 are masscred in an Al Qaeda hostage taking and attack on a Syrian Christian chruch in Baghdad.
Maliki Alienates Sunnis in Iraq.
New elections in Iraq sow the seeds of future discontent. Iraqiyya, a secular and religiously mixed bloc led by Ayad Allawi, a former British exile, win a narrow majority of votes, but the Shia bloc run by current prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, regains power after forming a governing coalitiion with Iranian-backed parties. Rather than handing key security positions to his opponents as promised, Mr Maliki concentrates power in his own hands, alienating the Sunni community.
Dec. 4- Osama Bin Laden believed to be in Ghazni province, Afghanistan.
Dec 8- Salh al Somali, coordinatior of Al Qaeda in Afhganistan and Pakistan witg Al Qaeda abroad is killed in a drone strike.
Underwear Airline Bomber Trained in Yemen under Al Qaeda.
-Al Qaeda claims responsibility for the Christmas attack on a US airliner by
the 'underwear bomber.' Sana'a asks for the West's support in the war on terror.
Dec 25- Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab, the "Underwear Bomber", arrested for attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He had been trained in Yemen by 'Al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsuala."
US State Department Concerned about Al Qaeda in Yemen.
2011 January - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits to express "urgent concern" at al-Qaeda activities in Yemen.
2011 Suicide Attacks in Iraq.
January 2011 Iraq suicide attacks were a series of three consecutive suicide bombings in Iraq which left at least 133 dead.
April 26, 2011: NATO reveals that Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, a regional commander in Afghanistan in charge of suicide bombings and cash flow, was killed by an airstrike earlier in the month.
April 25, 2011: The Al unnah Al Nawabiah Mosque in Montreal was among nine houses of prayer or Islamic institutes worldwide considered by the U.S. military to be places where "known al-Qaeda members were recruited, facilitated or trained," according to leaked classified American intelligence documents.
US Special Forces Kill Osama Bin Laden.
April 26, 2011: NATO reveals that Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, a regional commander in Afghanistan in charge of suicide bombings and cash flow, was killed by an airstrike earlier in the month.
May 1, 2011: Osama Bin Laden, head of Al Qaeda is killed when CIA paramilitaries and a Navy SEAL team attack his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
Al Badri succeeds Al Zawi as head of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
May 16, 2010-Al Badri close to Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, the founder of the Islamic State of Iraq succeeds him as emir of ISI after Omar’s death.
Syria- the Al Nusra Front- Independant fromAl Qaeda.
Aug. 2011: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al-Badri threatens on an AQI website to carry out 100 attacks across Iraq to avenge the death of bin Laden three months earlier.
US Assassinates Al Qaeda Preacher Awlaki
Sept- US-born al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is assassinated by US forces.
Iraq and Syria
Oct. 2011: State Department lists al-Badri as a specially designated global terrorist, offers a $10 million reward for information leading to his location.
2011- Syrian Jihadists begin to return from Iraq for the Syrian uprising. Some form the 'Al Nusra Front.' "By this time, ISI had been pushed to the brink of collapse by US and Iraqi forces – but the Syrian civil war gave the group a chance to rebuild. As the conflict began to intensify, Baghdadi quietly dispatched one of his junior officers, Abu Muhammad al-Joulani, across the border in late
2011 to take advantage of the chaos. Equipped with funds, weapons, and some of ISI’s best soldiers, Joulani’s group – which would soon be known as the Nusra Front – quickly became the most formidable fighting force in Syria." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
Oct- in Homs and Rif Dimashq jihadists discuss Al Nusra's founding and objectives. . 'Al Nusra' means "The Support Front for the People of the Levant [Greater Syria]" At its founding, it had no affiliation with Al Qaeda.
2011- Dec.- veteran jihadists of deceased Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi, leave Iraq, crossing the border to Syria to join in the Arab Spring rebellion against the Assad regime. Jabhat Al Nusra (JN) claims to fight on behalf of the Syria's increasingly oppressed Sunni majority and against Syria's ruling Shia Alawite sect and its allies which include Shia Iran and the Shia Hezbollah organization and militia in Lebanon.
Yemen
2011- Dec 13- Yemeni security forces arrested six “well-known” al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) operatives in Yemen; among the operatives was high-value target and leader of AQAP in al Jawf governorate, Musaed al Barbari. A stockpile of weapons and “training manuals” were found in his possession. The suspects, including Barbari, Mohamed Hussein Musayyib, Mohammad Abdulkadir Ahmed al Shihri, Nader Ahmad Mohamed al Qubati, Mohamed Muthana Ali al Amari, and Abdul Munaim Hamid Ali Abu Ghanem, had been planning attacks targeting high-ranking security officials, foreign embassies, and government buildings in Yemen. Also, the suspects had been “actively recruiting fighters” to join Ansar al Sharia militants fighting in Abyan and Shabwah governorates. Separately, three fugitives who escaped from al Mansoura Central Security prison in Aden on December 11 were captured
Iraq: Maliki moves against Sunni VP al-Hashemi.
December, 2011- Mr Maliki issues an arrest warrant for Tariq al-Hashemi, Iraq's Sunni vice-president, who flees abroad. The government claims Mr Hashemi has been using his bodyguards for terrorism campaigns, but Iraq's Sunnis see it as a sectarian smear campaign against his political rivals. Mr Maliki replaces competent military leaders who had worked with the Americans with political cronies, undermining the military's strength just when the US is pulling out its forces.
Syria: Al Nusra (JN).
Dec. 23- suicide car bombs kill 44 in Damascus. Al Nusra claims responsibility.
2102- Jan- al Nusra meetings continue in Rif Damashq and Homs.
2012- Jan 6- Al Nusra suicide bombing carried out by Abu al-Baraa al-Shami in Midan District of Damascus kills 26.
-in late January, ``the jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra li Ahl Ash-Sham, or
the Support Front for the People of Syria, announced its formation and
goal to bring down the regime of President Bashar Assad.`` -TIME.
2012- Jan 23- In its inaugural video Al Nusra claims an attack on a government security installation in Idlib. "We are Syrian mujahideen, back from various jihad fronts to restore God's rule on the Earth and avenge the Syrians' violated honour and spilled blood," a masked man declared in the video. (BBC)
2012- 10 Feb Al Nusra (JN) suicide bombings kill 28 in Aleppo.
2102- March 17- two car bombs in Damasucs kill 27.
2012- March-April- JN expands after many leading jihadists from Lebanese Fatah al-Islam and Palestinian groups joined the leadership and were able to secure sponsorship of key jihadi ideologues including Sheikh Abu al-Mundhir al-Shinqiti, Sheikh Abu Muhammad. JN may be responsible for bombings carried out on this date.
2012- May 29- On 29 May 2012, a mass execution was discovered near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor. The unidentified corpses of 13 government soldiers had been discovered shot to death execution-style. JN (Al Nusra) later claimed responsibility.
2012- June 17- Walid Ahmad al-Ayesh, described by Syrian authorities as the "right hand" of the Al-Nusra Front, was killed when Syrian authorities discovered his hiding place. He was reportedly responsible for the making of car bombs that were used to attack Damascus in the previous months. (Wikipedia)
2012- June 27- JN blows up a pro-government TV station in the town of Drousha, just south of the capital Damascus.
2012- June 27- JN blows up a pro-government TV station in the town of Drousha, just south of the capital Damascus.
2012- July- al-Baghdadi released an audio statement online announcing that the group was returning to former strongholds from which US troops and the Sons of Iraq had driven them in 2007 and 2008. He also declared the start of a new offensive in Iraq called Breaking the Walls, aimed at freeing members of the group held in Iraqi prisons. Violence in Iraq had begun to escalate in June 2012, primarily with AQI's car bomb attacks, and by July 2013, monthly fatalities exceeded 1,000 for the first time since April 2008. (Wikipedia)
Yemen Captures Al Qaeda Strongholds.
2012 June - The army recaptures three al-Qaeda strongholds in the south - Shuqra, Zinjibar and Jaar.
AQI leader al Badri helps to establish al Nusra.
2012: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al-Badri starts focusing attention on the jihad against President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, where he reportedly helps to establish an al-Qaeda affiliate, the al-Nusra Front, under the leadership of a former Zarqawi deputy.
Chechnya
2012- Summer- Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Helpers)- is founded by Chechen fighters as a Jihadi group for foreign fighters.
2012 June - The army recaptures three al-Qaeda strongholds in the south - Shuqra, Zinjibar and Jaar.
AQI leader al Badri helps to establish al Nusra.
2012: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al-Badri starts focusing attention on the jihad against President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, where he reportedly helps to establish an al-Qaeda affiliate, the al-Nusra Front, under the leadership of a former Zarqawi deputy.
Chechnya
2012- Summer- Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (Army of Emigrants and Helpers)- is founded by Chechen fighters as a Jihadi group for foreign fighters.
Al Qaeda Offensive in Mali
June 30, 2012- Armed Islamists destroy ancient tombs of Muslim saints that offend their puritan views in the desert city of Timbuktu and threaten to wipe out every religious shrine there. They impose sharia, the strict and often brutal Islamic law.
-summer of 2012, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Ansar Dine, another radical Islamist group, took advantage of the instability and an increasingly weak military in Mali and captured Timbuktu, Kidal, and Gao, cities in the north. They implemented and brutally enforced Shariah, or Islamic law.
September 2012- militants armed with antiaircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades fired upon the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other embassy officials. U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the U.S. believed that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a group closely linked to al-Qaeda, orchestrated the attack.
Al Zawahiri Defends al Qaeda's Al Nusra from claims of merger by ISIS.
May 2013: Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Al-Badri declares merger of AQI and al-Nusra under the name Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or alternatively, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The perceived power grab is rejected by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who declares that al-Nusra is the only al-Qaeda affiliate engaged in the anti-Assad campaign. Al-Badri ignores al-Zawahiri’s instructions to focus on Iraq, and instead continues operations in both countries.
Somalia- Al Shebab
2013- June 28: UN reports that the Al-Shabaab spiritual leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys has turned himself in to pro-government officials in the central town of Adado. Local elders assert that he and his militia are stationed in the central Galmudug region, having fled from their own comrades in Al-Shabaab-controlled territory after a bout of infighting. According to the Shabelle Media Network, legislators and elders flew in to the town in an attempt to persuade Aweys to negotiate with the government. However, the elders indicate that their efforts were unsuccessful
ISIS strengthened with jailbreak.
July, 2013- The new joint Syrian-Iraqi al-Qaeda offshoot, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (ISIS), gains a major coup when it breaks nearly 500 fellow militants from Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad. That ISIS can break its way into what is supposedly the most secure jail in the country shows how well-organised it has become. Many escapees rejoin ISIS's ranks.
2013- July Ahrar Al Sham (ISIS) now numbers about 15,000, the largest Jihadist umbrella group in Iraq. Some Ahrar al-Sham units that have been involved in heavy fighting include the Qawafel al-Shuhada and Ansar al-Haqq Brigades (both in Khan Sheikhoun, Idleb Province), the al-Tawhid wal-Iman Brigade (Maarrat al-Noum an, Idleb Province), the Shahba Brigade (Aleppo City), the Hassane bin Thabet Brigade (Darat Ezza, Aleppo Province), and the Salahaddin and Abul-Fida Brigades (both in Hama City) (Wikipedia)
2013- Dec. ISIS captures a member of the Islamic Front -accusing him of espionage- and tortures and murders him. "Within days, Syria’s major rebel groups – including Nusra, the country’s al-Qaida affiliate – banded together to declare war on Isis. Thousands of militants were killed over the first few months of 2014, as battles raged between Isis and the other rebel factions, with senior commanders on both sides kidnapped, tortured and murdered. As their positions were overrun, Isis was forced to retreat from western Syria. It began consolidating its control over the east, the area closest to Iraq, and the location of many of Syria’s oil fields. There, Nusra and Isis fought viciously, in and around the city of Raqqa and along the banks of the Euphrates." www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
December, 2013- Human Rights Watch issues a report criticising the Iraqi government over the scale of its use of the death penalty, often in cases where confessions have been extracted by torture. A disproportionate number of those on death row appear to be Sunni insurgents.
Jan. 2014- ISIS sends gunmen into the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The Iraqi army surrounds both cities but does not go for an all-out assault for fear of large civilian casualties that would alienate locals still further. Five months later, both cities remain outside of Iraqi security forces' control.
War Between ISIS and Al Nusra
Winter/spring 2014: ISIS/ISIL battles al-Nusra and other rebel groups for control of territory across northern Syria. Thousands die in this conflict within the wider Syrian civil war. The State Department says the group likely makes up “a significant portion of the estimated 26,000 violent extremist fighters in Syria.
ISIS ATTACK ON FALLUJAH AND RAMADI
Jan. 2014- ISIS sends gunmen into the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The Iraqi army surrounds both cities but does not go for an all-out assault for fear of large civilian casualties that would alienate locals still further. Five months later, both cities remain outside of Iraqi security forces' control.
On 16 January 2014, Zawahiri’s envoy, Abu Khalid al-Suri, published a message online. He tweeted that Isis was seeking to corrupt the jihad as it had done in Iraq: militants should direct their bombs at the infidels, he declared, not at their fellow jihadis. Seventeen days later, Zawahiri played his final card: Isis was expelled from al-Qaida.
Feb 3- Al Qaeda disowns ISIS, stating that its former affiliate “is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group [and al-Qaeda] does not have an organizational relationship with it and is not the group responsible for their actions.”
"On 26 May 2014,(Al Qaeda Scholar) Maqdisi deemed the negotiations dead and, backed by his fellow al-Qaida ideologues, issued a fatwa against Isis. “It has become necessary that we tell the truth, after we exhausted all the possibilities of advice and all hopes of making Isis return to the path of truth,” Maqdisi wrote. The rebellious organisation, he declared, had no “Islamic pretext”. Baghdadi, his commanders, and their religious officials were “deviants” who had “disobeyed the orders of their leaders and head scholars”. He instructed Isis’s soldiers to defect to the Nusra Front, and decreed that no Islamic website should host Isis messages." www.theguardian.com/world
2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
June 5, 2014, ISIS/ISIL forces launch an attack against the Iraqi city of Samarra, but are expelled by Iraqi airstrikes.
Jun. 9-10, 2014 ISIS/ISIL forces capture control of most of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and free hundreds of prisoners, including some of its fighters. Iraqi forces reportedly flee. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declares a state of emergency.
June 11, 2014- ISIS/ISIL forces take control of an oil refinery at Baiji then move further down the highway to Baghdad and seize Tikrit, just 95 miles north of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of people are reported to have been displaced as a result of the fighting.
June, 2014- ISIS takes over the cities of Mosul and Tikrit, also threatening Baghdad. Five years from being all but vanquished, al-Qaeda's writ in Iraq is as strong, if not stronger, as it was before.
ISIS DECLARES A CALIPHATE IN SYRIA AND IRAQ.
June 29, 2014- Isis declares a caliphate across controlled areas in Syria and Iraq while calling for global allegiance. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declares himself the leader – or caliph - of the 1.8 billion Muslims all over the world.
2014- July 2: Al-Baghdadi calls for all Muslims to gather to his new land and unite to “capture Rome” and own the world.
2014 July 3: Isis takes control of al-Omar, Syria’s largest oil-field
2015 July 5: Al-Baghdadi is recorded in his first public appearance, at the Grand Mosque in Mosul, calling on all Muslims to obey him.
2014- July 17: Isis claims to have killed 270 people after seizing the Shaer gas field in Syria. Days later dozens of Iraqi Christians leave after a warning by Isis that it will carry out a similar attack if they do not convert to Islam.
July 26: Isis blows up Jonah’s tomb, a holy site in Jewish heritage.
ISIS TAKES SINJAR, MASSCRES YAZIDI CHRISTIANS. ENSLAVEMENT AND RAPE.
2014- August 3: Militants capture the city of Sinjar. They begin a massacre that culminates in the deaths of over 5,000 men from the Yazidi religious sect. Thousands of women are raped and sold into slavery. 200,000 Yazidi flee with as many as 50,000 becoming stranded on the Sinjar Mountains surrounded by ISIS.
August 6: Kurdish forces join the fight against Isis.
US BEGINS AIR STRIKES
August 8: US President Barack Obama authorizes the first air strikes, which subsequently drop bombs outside the Kurdish city of Erbil, where Isis movement had sparked a mass exodus.
August 15: Isis massacres a Yazidi village in northern Iraq.
BEHEADING OF JAMES FOLEY
August 19: Isis’ media arm uploads a video entitled “Message to America,” showing the beheading of the American journalist and hostage James Foley. The masked militant, who speaks with a British accent, demands the US ceases air strikes.
2014- August 29: The UK Home Secretary Theresa May raises the UK terror level to ‘severe’ in response to the conflict in Iraq and Syria.
BEHEADING OF STEVEN SOTLOFF
2014- Sept 2: Isis uploads another video featuring the same militant (now known by his tabloid monikor ‘Jihadi John’), this time showing the beheading of another US journalist, Steven Sotloff.
FORMATION OF WESTERN COALITION AGAINST ISIS
Sept 5: The US announces the formation of a coalition to “destroy the threat posed by Isis”. The ten-nation coalition comprises of US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.
-Sept 11: The CIA announces that Isis now has between 20,000 to 31,500 fighters.
The US announces numerous Aran nations have agreed to support the coalition.
Sept 13- ISIS launches an offensive on the northern Syrian city district of Kobane, home to a city of the same name, meeting a strenuous resistance from its predominantly Kurdish population. A four-month siege ensues.
Sept 13: Isis releases another video, showing the execution of British aid worker David Haines by ‘Jihadi John’. The militant threatens to kill another British hostage if the UK continues its ‘evil alliance with America.’
Sept- 22, 2014: Isis executes Iraqi human rights activist Samira Salih al-Nuaimi
Sept 23: US warplanes bomb Isis fighters in Raqqa, a northern Syrian city claimed by Isis to be its capital.
Sept 24: Isis-affiliated Algerian militant group Jund al-Khiilafah kidnap and behead a French tourist, Hervé Gourdel
ISIS RELEASES MORE VIDEOS OF WESTERN HOSTAGES
Sept 29: Isis releases a video showing the kidnapped British journalist John Cantlie in an orange jumpsuit reading a seemingly scripted message criticising President Obama.
Oct 3: Isis releases a video showing the beheading of the British aid worker Alan Henning as they threaten to kill another, the American aid worker Peter Kassig, also known as Abdul Rahman Kassig
Oct 13- ISIS English-language propaganda magazine, Dabiq, calls on jihadi sympathisers to attack westerners "wherever they can be found."
ISIS IN BATTLE FOR KOHANI ON SYRIAN-TURKISH BORDER.
Oct 16: Isis is pushed back from the Syrian city of Kobani with help from US air strikes.
Oct 20- a Canadian convert and IS sympathiser runs dwon two soldiers, killing one, with his car near Montreal.
Oct 22- An Islamist gunmen kills a soldier guarding the National War Memorial in Ottawa, before storming Canada's parliament building. He is subsequently shot dead by security forces.
Oct 29: Senior Australian figure and Isis recruiter Mohammad Ali Baryalei is reportedly killed in Syria.
2014- Nov. 3: The Iraqi government announces Isis has killed 322 members of the Albu Minr tribe during a series of executions.
Nov. 8: Iraqi government officials claim that Isis leader al-Baghdadi is wounded in a coalition air strike near Mosul.
Nov 13: A recording of al-Baghdadi surfaces as in which he claims the US military-led campaign is failing and that the coalition of “America and its allies are terrified, weak and powerless” and to “light the Earth with fire under all the tyrants and their soldiers and supporters.”
Nov 16: The group claims to have beheaded American aid worker Peter Kassig along with a dozen Syrian soldiers.
Nov 29: At least 40 fighters on both sides are killed in the city of Kobani during a battle between Syrian Kurds and Isis militants.
ISIS LOSES SINJAR
2014- Dec 19: Isis is pushed out of most of the Sinjar region of Iraq.
Dec 15- a self-professed Muslim cleric with a criminal record for sexual assault, takes 17 hostages at a Sydney café claiming to for ISIS. Two people and the attacker die after police storm the premises.
Dec 21: The Sinjar offensive is considered a success with a Kurdish victory.
Dec 24: Isis militants claim to shoot down and then capture a Jordanian pilot in northern Syria. They demand the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaeda prisoner held in Jordan over a failed suicide bombing.
2015- Jan 4: Isis attacks Saudi Arabia near the border city of Arar, killing four border guards.
Jan 10: A video released shows Taliban fighters pledging allegiance to Isis.
Jan 18: Isis releases about 250 Yazidis.
ISIS BEHEADS JAPANESE HOSTAGE
2015- Jan 20: The group demands a ransom of $200 million from Japan in exchange for two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yokawa.
Jan 24: A video is uploaded that seems to show Goto holding a photo of Yokawa, who has been beheaded.
KURDS TAKE KOHANE FROM ISIS
Jan 26: Kurdish fighters take control of the Syrian border town of Kobane after fighting Isis for months.
2015- Jan 26- Renegade Taliban fightrs swear allegiance to Baghdadi and found 'The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan,' using Khorasan, the ancient term for the Afghanistan region.
Jan 31: A video is released showing the beheading of Kenji Goto by the British militant.
ISIS RELEASES VIDEO OF JORDANIAN PILOT BURNED ALIVE IN A CAGE.
2015- Feb 3: Isis supporters post a video online of the captured Jordanian military pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh being burned alive in a cage.
Feb 5: The Jordanian military carries out a series of air strikes on Isis training centres and weapons depots.
Feb 6: Isis claims a Jordanian air strike killed the American hostage Kayla Mueller.
Feb 10: Kayla Mueller’s family announce she is dead after receiving confirmation from Isis.
Feb 11: President Obama asks Congress to authorise use of military force against Isis.
ISIS MOVES AGAINST EGYPTIAN CHRISTIANS.
Feb 15: Libyan Isis militants release a video that appears to show the group beheading 21 Egyptian Christians.
Feb 15- An IS sympathiser goes on a gun rampage in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing two, at freedom of speech event and a synagogue.
Feb 15- IS Libyan branch releases footage showing the beheading of 21 Eguptian Christians on a beach.
Feb 16: Egypt launches air strikes on Isis camps, training sites and weapon depots in retaliation for the beheadings.
Feb 22: Isis releases a propaganda video of Kurdish Peshmerga troops in orange jumpsuits in cages.
Feb 26: The identity of terrorist known as ‘Jihadi John’ is revealed as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwati-born Londoner.
Feb 26- Isis also releases a video of the destruction of historical artefacts in the Mosul Museum.
2015- March 4: Isis releases images of a man thrown off a building as punishment for being gay.
ISIS ACCEPTS ALLEGIANCE FROM BOKO HAREM IN NIGERIA.
March 12: Boko Harem, the Islamist militant group in northern Nigeria pledges allegiance to Isis. Isis accepts.
March 18- ISIS claims responsibility for a deadly attack at the Bardo Museum in Tunis, in which 22 people, including British, French and Italian tourists are killed.
2015- March 20: Isis takes responsibility for a suicide bombing that kills 137 people and wounds over 300 in Yemen.
ISIS USES TUNIS TO CROSS INTO LIBYA
March 24: Isis uses the town of Tataouine, a Tunisian town that inspired the Star Wars city of Tattooine, as a waypoint to cross into Libya.
March 25: US-led coalition begins air strikes on the Iraqi city of Tikrit.
ISIS LOSES TIKRIT TO IRAQI ARMY
2015- April 1: Iraq declares victory over Isis in Tikrit.
Apr 12: Iraqi government declares Tikrit free of Isis forces.
Apr 18: Fighters in Isis’ Wilayat Khorasan province claim responsibility for a suicide bombing in Afghanistan that kills 33 people and injures over 100.
Apr 19: Isis produces a video showing the shooting and beheadings in Libya of two groups of prisoners, who are identified as 30 Ethiopian Christians.
2015- May 1: It is reported that Al-Baghdadi is recovering in Mosul
May 2: Isis kills 300 Yazidi captives in Iraq.
Afghanistan
April- newly arrivied ISIS and the Taliban declare Jihad against one another
ISIS CLAIMS FARLAND, TEXAS ATTACK.
May 5: The group claims an attack in Garland, Texas, where two gunmen opened fire on a contest to draw the Prophet Mohamed.
May 13: Abu Alaa Afri, the deputy leader of Isis, is killed in US-led coalition air strike.
2015 May 16: US Special Ops kill Abu Sayaaf, a senior Isis commander, and capture his wife.
ISIS CAPTURES RAMADI
May 17: Isis seizes the city of Ramadi in Iraq. Over 500 people are killed.
ISIS CAPTURES PALMYRA
May 20: Isis takes control of the ancient city of Palymyra, Syria.
May 28: The group claims it has seized the Libyan Air Force airport in Sirte.
The Fight for Al Hasakah, Syria.
2015- 30 May- after ISIL forces suffered collapse in the western Al-Hasakah province, they launched an offensive on the Syrian government-held portion of Al-Hasakah city. Although the Kurdish YPG initially stayed out of the conflict, they eventually joined the conflict on 5 June, after ISIL reached the southern gate of the city, after a decision that the YPG would be recognized as a primary combatant force in the city. (Wikipedia)
2015 June 1: A militant posts a “selfie” online, which leads the US military to identify and perform air strikes on a compound, destroying it in the process.
June 2: Isis closes the gates of a dam in Ramadi.
ISIS BEHEADS 10 TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN
June 7: Isis captures 10 Taliban militants in Afghanistan and beheads them.
KURDS TAKE POINTS IN NORTHERN SYRIA FROM ISIS
June 15: Syrian Kurdish fighters take the town of Tell Abyad from Isis.
June 23: Kurds take back a key base north of Raqqa from Isis fighters
On the same day, a video emerges showing a group of hostages being split into three, before some are executed using a rocket-propelled grenade, others are drowned in a cage and the rest are beheaded using electrical charges.
ISIS TAKES PALMYRA
Militants begin destroying ancient monuments in the ancient city of Palmyra.
June 26- Isis claims the killing of 38 people in a shooting at a Tunisian beach resort and for a separate suicide bombing that kills at least 25 Shiite worshipers in a Kuwait mosque.
2015- 8 June- ISIL was pushed back from Al-Hasakah city, and Syrian Army forces were able to establish a 12 kilometer (7.46 mi) buffer zone around the southern portion of Al-Hasakah.
Afghanistan- ISIS and the death of Mullah Omar.
July 31- Death of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, gives possible boost to ISIS over leaderless Taliban factions.
Syria
11 August. ISIS loses Al Hasakah to Syrian Government forces. The US-led Coalition conducted an airstrike on a village east of Al-Hasakah city, blowing up a building that ISIL was using for a meeting, which killed over 50 ISIL militants. On 12 August, ISIL reportedly publicly shot and executed more than 90 of its own members as punishment for escaping the battlefield. ISIL claimed that the fighters' desertion was the main cause of ISIL's loss at the Battle of Al-Hasakah. It was reported on 16 August that ISIL had executed four more of its own fighters for allegedly collaborating with the Coalition. (Wikipedia)
Aug 19- Militants from Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) beheaded one of Syria's most prominent antiquities scholars in the ancient town of Palmyra, then hung his body from one of the town's Roman columns, Syrian state media and an activist group said Wednesday. The killing of 81-year-old Khaled al-Asaad was the latest atrocity perpetrated by the militant group, which has captured a third of both Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared a self-styled "caliphate" on the territory it controls.
Aug 24- Islamic State militants have released photos showing what appears to be the destruction of the ancient Baal Shamin temple in Syria's Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recently captured and vandalized by the jihadists.
2015- Aug 30- ISIS blows up 2000 year old Temple of Bel in Palmyra.
thanks to BBC Timelines and:
TheIndependent on Sunday
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/timeline-al-qaeda-linked-terrorists-move-closer-establishing-islamic
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23283079
Wikipedia,
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/al-qaeda-jabhat-al-nusra-merge.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/10895006/Timeline-How-al-Qaeda-regained-its-hold-in-Iraq.html
-http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/05/02/f-al-qaeda-timeline.html
- Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/spot/al-qaeda-terrorism.html#ixzz2Rg9JhBiu
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