Sometime in June 2014, after making significant territorial gains in Iraq, the group established a Caliphate led by the leader of ISIL, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Hashim, 2014). ISIL has its origins in the Iraq War of 2003 to 2011. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), its predecessor, was one of the key players in a larger Sunni insurgency against the Iraqi government and foreign occupying forces. Under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, AQI was responsible for a bloody campaign of suicide bombings, kidnappings and hostage beheadings in Iraq (Celso, 2015). Shortly after Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike in June 2006, the group combined with several smaller extremist groups and renamed itself the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), a change that reflected the
