CSIS Transnational Threats Project: ISIS Panel Q&A compilation
Channel: Center for Strategic & International Studies
Date: 2014-07-08

On June 10, 2014, the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) executed a rapid, violent sweep across large parts of Iraq in partnership with disaffected Sunni tribes and remnant officers from Saddam Hussein's military and Baathist party. After chasing off Shiite-dominated Iraqi national army and police forces and capturing Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, ISIS emptied bank vaults and prisons of their most valuable contents. The world reacted with shock and concern, and soon Iran, the United States, Saudi Arabia and many others acknowledged a shared interest in slowing this confident, independent, vicious group which itself fell afoul of al-Qaeda senior leadership over the past year unrestrained warfare in Syria. The CSIS TNT Project quickly convened a high-level panel of experts to discuss the implications of these dramatic developments on June 19, 2014.