The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is also known by several other names such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham, ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fi ‘l-’Iraq wa-sh-Sham, Daesh for short in Arabic or just Islamic State (IS). The ISIS a very large militant group whose members are the fundamentalist Wahhabi/Salafi jihadis drawn largely from the Arabs of the Sunni sect from Iraq and Syria. By March this year, the ISIS had established control over large swath of territory in Iraq and Syria in its drive to establish an Islamic state in the Middle East ruled by strict Shariah law. With the help of local groups loyal to it, the ISIS has established control over a number of smaller areas in other countries such as Libya, Nigeria and Afghanistan. The ISIS also has affiliates in other parts of the world or carries out operations there all by itself, including in North Africa and in South Asia.

Brief History

The origins of the ISIS can be traced back to Al Qaeda whose story began with invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 by the then Soviet Union. The al Qaeda was created to battle the occupation forces. However, after the withdrawal of the Soviet forces from the war-torn country, Al Qaeda split in 1999 and the break-away group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was named as Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of AQI, was killed in a US airstrike. In 2010, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi assumed leadership of the AQI and continues till today. In April 2013, he renamed the organisation as the ISIS. In March 2015, the Nigerian-based Islamist sect Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS.

In the last 16 years, the ISIS has grown from strength to strength and current estimates are that it has more than 30,000 fighters in its ranks. As per reports from the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, 23 Indians also form a part of the group apart from the six that have already died in battles in Iraq. Combatants of the ISIS are armed with only light weapons consisting of automatic rifles, small arms and shoulder-fired missiles most of which have been acquired from stocks left over in Iraq after US withdrawal from there and from Syria. The group raises funds through extortion or receives massive donations from sympathisers amongst the affluent in the Middle East. Over the years, the group has become increasingly violent and intolerant, always attempting to influence conflicts in the Middle East. In Syria, the ISIS has been mounting attacks on both government forces and rebel factions in the Syrian Civil War. In Iraq, in early 2014, ISIS came into prominence after it drove the Iraqi Government forces out of key cities in western Iraq. In fact, this operation by the ISIS had driven the Iraqi Government to the verge of collapse, saved only through American military intervention.

Carnage in Paris

The world was traumatised on the evening of November 13, 2015, when a series of coordinated attacks terrorists including with three suicide bombers were mounted by the ISIS in Paris and Saint Denis, its northern suburb. Earlier in January this year, France had been rattled by a number of deadly attacks by Islamist militants which included the killing of 12 at the office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.

The ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks which was described by FranÇois Hollande, the President of France as “an act of war”

In the attacks on November 13 that have been described as the deadliest in the European Union since the bombing of a passenger train in Madrid in 2004, around 130 innocent civilians perished and nearly 400 were injured. The ISIS promptly claimed responsibility for the attacks which was described by François Hollande, the President of France, as “an act of war”. The attacks in Paris was perceived by some as a response to aerial strike by France against the ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since October 2015.

Response by the French Air Force

Two days after the carnage in Paris, i.e. on the evening of November 15 beginning at 1950 hours local time, the French Air Force (FAF) launched a massive air strike by a dozen aircraft including Rafale and Mirage 2000 combat jets against the ISIS elements based in the city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the organisation in Syria. The targets included a terrorist training camp of the ISIS, a jihadist recruitment centre, an ammunition depot as also a Command Centre that was completely destroyed. In the first five days since retaliatory air strikes were launched by the FAF, as many as 70 missions were flown against ISIS targets. In comparison, in the first two weeks of November 2015, only 50 sorties had been recorded to have been flown on such missions.

As per the French Ministry of Defence, combat aircraft of the FAF were launched from bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. Hollande took the decision in consultation with his national security advisors to employ air power to inflict a crushing blow to the barbaric organisation. In fact France had already been conducting air strikes against the ISIS locations mainly in Iraq.

However, earlier on, France had been attacking oil installations under the control of the ISIS with the aim of adversely affecting its primary source of revenue. Although this action by France did not receive endorsement from the Kremlin, the French Foreign Ministry justified the air strikes on oil installations belonging to the ISIS as an action carried out in self-defence and hence was not only legitimate but also a necessary and an appropriate response to the attacks carried out by the ISIS.

However, compared with the air operations conducted by the FAF in Iraq, aerial action against the ISIS targets in Syria had been of a much lower intensity. As the relationship between France and the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria was less than cordial, the French Government was wary of inadvertently strengthening the hand of President Assad by decimating his opponents. The US, on the other hand, had been conducting precision air strikes against the ISIS targets in Raqqa with the help of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV). In one such air strike in the city of Raqqa just three days before the carnage in Paris, an American UCAV was able to eliminate Jihadi John, a British citizen of Arab origin who had shot into the limelight following release of a gruesome video showing him beheading an innocent peace corps worker in Syria.

The major concern in all aerial strikes against the ISIS targets was the possibility of collateral damage and unintended killing of innocent civilians that would invite adverse reaction amongst the public not only in Iraq and Syria but in the rest of the civilised world as well. However, despite all the concerns expressed and due care exercised, there were a large number of civilian casualties in the air strikes. There was also differing perception on target priorities between Russia and the US which only served to complicate matters further.

Russia on the Offensive

During the week that the French had undertaken air operations against the ISIS, Russia too launched massive air strikes on Raqqa on November 18 but for altogether a different reason. The Russian air strikes were launched in response to confirmation that the group had blown up a Russian civilian airliner that was carrying tourists, over the Sinai in Egypt. The Russian Ministry of Defence released videos showing TU-95, TU-22 and TU-160 bombers taking off from airbases in Syria and Russia and bombing ISIS targets in Syria. President Vladimir Putin vowed retribution against those responsible for blowing up the Russian airliner and killing a large number of innocent civilians.

Russia began air strikes in Syria on September 30 against militant groups opposed to the Assad regime. However, the following day, as many as 30 air strikes were carried out by the Russian Air Force against ISIS positions in Raqqa. Air strikes by Russian aircraft continued throughout October 2015. As per data released by the Russian Ministry of Defence, in the period from September 30 to October 22, 2015, the Russian Air Force carried out 934 sorties and destroyed 819 targets. By November 17, 2015, the Russian Air Force had undertaken a total of 2,300 missions over Syria.

In fact, a new dimension of complexity has been introduced in the situation with the shooting down on November 24 of a Russian Su-24 combat aircraft by Turkey over Syrian territory. This will not only queer the pitch in the relationship between Turkey and Russia, it is symptomatic of the escalating tension between the NATO and Russia. The world is once again inching towards a new Cold War or perhaps even World War III. The downing of the Russian fighter jet is an episode that is likely to impinge on the global power balance.