Al-Maliki lead Iraq through an increase in anti-Sunni violence, including the bloody crack-down on the 2012–2013 Sunni protests, which has been interpreted as leading to the rise of ISIS. The military under the al-Maliki administration was known for its corruption and was plagued with ghost soldiers, a corruption scheme with soldiers names on the pay rolls but not actually in service. When ISIS increased its activity in the first part of the 2013–2017 War in Iraq, Maliki lead Iraq through major defeats, including the June 2014 northern Iraq offensive which saw the catastrophic collapse of the Iraqi army in that region and the fall of Mosul, where an army of 1,500 ISIS militants won over 60,000 Iraqi soldiers.