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One Year of the Islamic State Caliphate, Mapped

  • By Elias GrollElias Groll is a staff writer at Foreign Policy, covering cyberspace and its conflicts and controversies. He has written for the magazine since 2012 and is a graduate of Harvard University.
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  • @eliasgroll
One Year of the Islamic State Caliphate, Mapped

A year ago, the Islamic State militant group declared a caliphate spreading from Iraq and Syria. Since then, the group has consolidated control over its territory in Iraq and Syria while also establishing itself as the world’s premier Islamist terrorist group. It has won the allegiance of jihadi fighters around the world and led to the establishment of Islamic State affiliates in several countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

According to a recent analysis carried out by IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, the Islamic State has carried out 3,097 attacks in the last year. The map below shows those attacks and uses black borders to delineate the provinces claimed by the Islamic State. Nigeria is excluded, as territory under the control of the militant group Boko Haram has not been formally proclaimed a province, or wilayat, of the Islamic State, according to IHS. Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, meaning it will likely be included soon.

Click the image for a larger version.

Map_of_Islamic_State_IHS_JTIC

 

IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre; Photo credit: JM LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images