While some world leaders and foreign policy experts expected IS to increase its attacks during COVID-19’s early days, travel bans and curfews helped slow violence.
A group of Islamic State fighters surrender in Afghanistan. Many of their comrades are still in the fight.
Noorullah Shirzada/AFP via Getty Images
The Islamic State group, often called ISIS, is not just based in Iraq and Syria. A scholar tracks where the group and its affiliates have spread around the globe.
In an address to the Lowy Institute, outgoing ASIO head Duncan Lewis warned that “the scale and scope of foreign intelligence activity against Australian interests is unprecedented”.
Smoke from an airstrike rises in the background as a man flees during fighting between Iraqi special forces and IS militants in Mosul, Iraq, on May 17, 2017.
AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo
After a major defeat in Mosul, Islamic State seems to have suffered a blow that could end its goal of establishing a cross-border caliphate in the Middle East.
An Iraqi soldier inspects a train tunnel adorned with an Islamic State group flag in Mosul, Iraq.
AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed
Is Trump correct in asserting that NATO has outlived its utility? Or that NATO’s members enjoy a ‘free ride’ on the back of the US? A political scientist examines the evidence.
Iraqi special forces soldier advancing toward Mosul, Iraq.
AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed
Videos released by Islamic State have captured the attention of the world for years. But the media focus on its so-called ‘slick, professional’ video techniques runs the risk of mythologising the terrorist group.
The unfolding information about the Zika virus and saddening images of babies infected with microcephaly should really scare us all. The disease has spread “explosively” throughout the Americas, with 32…
Malcolm Turnbull gave a speech to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington that focused on global security and trade.
Brad Hunter/PMO
Anonymous strives to bring down IS propaganda before it reaches the masses.
In condemning terrorist attacks in Paris, French president Francois Hollande (center) used the term Da'ish to refer to Islamic State, a deliberate naming change.
Reuters
The French term for ISIS – known as Da'ish or Daesh – has gathered more interest in the wake of the Paris attacks. Here’s why this battle of naming matters.
The opening ceremony of an exercise organized by the US military in Ndjamena, Chad earlier this year to take on Boko Haram.
Reuters/Emmanuel Braun
Apart from numerous worldwide threats including from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the US is taking more notice of Africa due to the expansion of extremist organisations on the continent.
ISIS take Ramadi; on the move in Iraq.
Steve Allen/Shutterstock
ISIS victories in Iraq do not come out of the blue; the group’s military success results from a long history of tensions between Sunnis and Shia and US policies that fostered such tension.
When not employing the description ‘death cult’, Prime Minister Tony Abbott prefers to use the name Da'esh because the group ‘hates being referred to by this term’.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The terrorist group now calls itself Islamic State, but the many names by which it is known reflect both its own evolution and the deliberate choices others make in how they refer to it.