page_title: Timeline of ISIL-related events (2014)
section_title: September 2014
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of ISIL-related events (2014) / Timeline / September 2014
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) launches RGM-109 Tomahawk cruise missiles. On 23 September 2014, 47 Tomahawk missiles were fired by Philippine Sea and USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), which were operating from international waters in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Syria in the vicinity of Ar-Raqqah, Deir ez-Zor, Al-Hasakah and Al-Bukamal.
context_page_description: In early 2014, the jihadist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant captured extensive territory in Western Iraq in the Anbar campaign, while counter-offensives against it were mounted in Syria. Raqqa in Syria became its headquarters. The Wall Street Journal estimated that eight million people lived under its control in the two countries.
  In June the group proclaimed a "worldwide caliphate" and shortened its name to just "Islamic State".
context_section_description: 1 September: The Iraqi Army recaptured the town of Suleiman Bek and killed 23 Chechen ISIL militants. The German government's Cabinet decision to arm the Kurdish Peshmerga was ratified in the Bundestag by a "vast majority" of votes, after an emotional debate. The Yazidi villages of Kotan, Hareko and Kharag Shafrsky were set on fire by ISIL.
  2 September: ISIL released a video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff. Kurdish Peshmerga recaptured from ISIL the town of Zumar. A hundred relatives of the cadets and soldiers killed at Camp Speicher in June broke into the Iraqi Parliament to ask for explanations.
  4 September: A member of ISIL issued a threat to President Vladimir Putin, vowing to oust him over his support of Bashar al-Assad's government. An ISIL self-appointed court sentenced to death and then ordered the killing of 14 men. Sheik Maisar Farman el-Waka, a candidate of the April general election was killed in public by ISIL in al-Houd village along with his two brothers. Another candidate of the parliamentary elections, Zaina Nouri Mullah Abdallah el-Ansi, was killed in Mosul.
  5 September: The German Bundeswehr dispatched the first of a series of cargo planes to Iraq, loaded with helmets, vests, radios, and infrared night-vision rifle scopes. After a stopover in Baghdad for inspection, the aircraft will deliver the equipment to the Kurdish fighters. Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, has been to the Iraqi city of Amirli, to work with the United States in pushing back ISIL.
  7 September: the governor of Al Anbar Governorate, Ahmad Khalaf al-Dulaimi, was seriously wounded by mortar fire in the newly retaken town of Barwana. ISIL killed 40 people in Mosul after trial by a self-appointed court. About 40 men were abducted from Tal Ali village for having burned ISIL flags after ISIL retreat from the village. The men were released some days later, after having been tortured.
  8 September: ISIL carried out a double suicide attack in a town north of Baghdad, killing nine people and wounding 70 others. An ISIL attack against the town of Duloeliyah killed at least 20 civilians and wounded 120 more. Nouri Al-Maliki was succeeded by Haider Al-Abadi as Prime Minister of Iraq.
  9 September: Peshmerga fighters discovered a mass grave containing the bodies of 14 civilians, presumably Yazidis. Another Imam was killed in Mosul for refusing to declare his fealty to ISIL.
  10 September: President Obama announced a new rollback policy and coalition in the Middle East after ISIL beheaded two American journalists and seized control of large portions of Syria and Iraq. 
  America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat... We will ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive counterterrorism strategy.
  13 September: UK humanitarian aid worker David Cawthorne Haines, whose life had been threatened by Mohammed Emwazi in the Steven Sotloff video, was purportedly beheaded in a video.
  14 September: A number of Algerian commanders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb broke allegiance with al-Qaeda, swore loyalty to ISIL and created the group Jund al-Khilafah.
  15 September: The Battle of Suq al Ghazi ended with a US–Iraqi win.
  17 September: ISIL launched a major offensive to capture the YPG-controlled city of Kobani/Ayn al-Arab.
  18 September: The Australian Federal Police, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Queensland Police and New South Wales Police launched the largest counterterrorism operation in Australian history. The targets were ISIL-linked networks thought to be planning to launch mass-casualty attacks in populated areas. Fifteen people were arrested in the raids with one being charged with terrorism offenses.
  19 September:  Four French air strikes had hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of militants. Those were the first air strikes conducted by French Air Force in Irak.
  20 September: The hostages from the Turkish consulate in Mosul who had been captured on 11 June 2014 were released.
  21 September: ISIL forces overran the Iraqi military ba
caption: Tomahawk missiles fired by USS Philippine Sea and USS Arleigh Burke against ISIL targets in Syria, September 2014
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