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What was ISIS?

On June 10, 2014, Mosul fell; nineteen days later a caliphate was proclaimed. It took five years to erase it from the map — on March 23, 2019, at Baghouz, the territorial caliphate ended.

Last updated: October 2026

The short answer

For five years, the most feared organization on earth was also a state. It held cities, taxed citizens, and minted its own logic of horror — and then, between 2017 and 2019, it lost everything it had taken. ISIS burned bright, and died small.

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On June 10, 2014, Mosul fell; nineteen days later a caliphate was proclaimed. It took five years to erase it from the map — on March 23, 2019, at Baghouz, the t…

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