One year after a caliphate was declared spanning Syria and Iraq, there is little to celebrate — unless you're ISIS.
Despite a massive international campaign to
defeat the the brutal militants, ISIS has not only managed to hold onto
the territory but has expanded its reach beyond those borders over the
last 12 months.
"It's been a great year for ISIS," according to
Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center.
"This would be close to a best-case scenario for them."
Majeed Al-Hamadani, a 43-year-old high-school
teacher in Baghdad, agreed. "Nothing was changed during the past year,"
he told NBC News. "ISIS lost some territories but they were able to take
over other areas.
The Iraqi soldiers do not have the will to fight."
The group burst onto the international stage
when fighters bearing the black flag of ISIS seized control of Mosul,
Iraq, in early June 2014. The Sunni militants had been mostly fighting
in Syria before then, but the fall of Iraq's second city signaled the
militants had bigger plans.
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