Nov 26 2019 22 mins 123
The group built quickly, claiming space left behind by the Syrian civil war and the chaos in the wake of the long US war in Iraq. By mid-2014, the group known to many countries as "Daesh" had declared a caliphate. Within a year it had claimed larges swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, gained affiliates and inspired followers in more than a dozen other countries -- and begun a reign of terror for any who did not conform to its rigid, violent interpretation of Sharia law. In late 2015, the self-titled Islamic State, aka ISIS, became the focus of international military action that included airstrikes, weapons deliveries and eventually, bloody, costly door-to-door combat in Iraq and Syria. The manhunt was on for affiliates in other countries. In Shatter the Nations: ISIS and the War for the Caliphate, Mike Giglio tells the story of the rise of the caliphate and "the ramshackle coalition -- aided by secretive Western troops and American airstrikes -- that was assembled to break it down village by village, district by district." Giglio spoke to Stratfor's Fred Burton for the Pen and Sword podcast.
