June 29, 2014
On June 29, 2014 — the first day of Ramadan — the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham announced it was abolishing its name and declaring a 'caliphate' over the territory it controlled in Syria and Iraq, renaming itself simply 'the Islamic State' and demanding the allegiance of Muslims worldwide. The announcement came days after ISIS fighters seized Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, in a lightning offensive that saw Iraqi security forces collapse and flee. ISIS now controlled a territory the size of Great Britain, with a population of 8 million, oil fields, banks, weapons depots, and a ruthless bureaucracy. The caliphate declaration drew tens of thousands of foreign fighters from over 100 countries and transformed the Syrian conflict from a regional proxy war into a global crisis, forcing the United States to form a 65-nation coalition.
Commanders