From the 2014 proclamation of the now-eradicated Islamic State group's "caliphate" in Syria and Iran to Wednesday's announcement of the death of its leader, here is a timeline.

- 'Caliphate' declared -

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), declared in June 2014 that they had set up a caliphate, under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Raqa, in Syria, and Mosul, in Iraq, became the two de-facto IS capitals.

- Atrocities -

Rebranded the Islamic State, the group carried out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing in Raqa.

Some atrocities were broadcast on video, used as propaganda.

In Iraq, IS seized the historic home of the Yazidi minority in Sinjar region, forcing children to become soldiers and using thousands of women as sex slaves.

UN special investigators in 2021 reported they had collected "clear and convincing evidence" of genocide by IS against the Yazidis.

- Anti-jihadist coalition -

Washington in August 2014 formed a coalition of more than 70 countries to fight IS in Iraq and Syria, deploying 5,000 soldiers.

- Defeats in Iraq -

In March 2015, Iraq announced the "liberation" of Tikrit, north of Baghdad. In November, coalition-backed Kurdish forces retook Sinjar.

The following year, Anbar provincial capital Ramadi was retaken, as was the city of Fallujah.

And in July 2017, then Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the jihadists' defeat in Mosul.

On December 9, Abadi announced a final victory against IS.

- Ousted from Syria -

Kurdish forces drove jihadists out of Kobane, on the Turkish border, in January 2015.

In August 2016, the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptured Manbij in Aleppo province.

Backed by Turkish forces, rebels retook Jarabulus, and then, in February 2017, Al-Bab, the last IS bastion in Aleppo province.

In March, Syrian troops backed by Russian jets took back the ancient town of Palmyra and in October the SDF announced the full recapture of Raqa.

The SDF proclaimed the defeat of the "caliphate" in March 2019 after seizing Baghouz, IS's final bastion in Syria.

On October 27, 2019, Washington announced that IS leader Baghdadi had detonated a suicide vest during an overnight raid by US special forces deep in northwest Syria, killing himself and three of his children.

- Big Baghdad bombing -

In January 2021, IS claimed responsibility for a twin suicide attack at a Baghdad market, the first such assault in the city for more than three years.

According to a UN report published in February, the jihadist group had "10,000 active fighters" in Syria and Iraq.

In December, Washington announced that the international coalition had "finished its combat mission" in Iraq.

But some 2,500 US soldiers and 1,000 coalition troops remain deployed there as trainers.

- Prison offensive -

In January 2022, jihadists stormed Syria's Ghwayran prison in the northeastern city of Hasakeh in an assault described as one of IS's most significant since its defeat.

Over several days of fighting, hundreds of people died before Kurdish forces regained control.

In early February during a US raid in northwestern Syria, IS's second leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, blew himself up. He was replaced by Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.

On November 30, an IS spokesman said Hashimi, an Iraqi, has been killed in battle and identified the new leader as Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi.

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Islamic State group announces death of leader
Beirut (AFP) Nov 30, 2022
The Islamic State jihadist group said Wednesday that its leader Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has been killed in battle and announced a replacement to head up its remaining sleeper cells. A spokesman for IS said Hashimi, an Iraqi, was killed "in combat with enemies of God", without elaborating on the date or circumstances of his death. The US military's Central Command (CENTCOM) said Hashimi had been killed in an operation carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province in sout ... read more