Modern wars · 2014 to 2017

ISIS and the Battle of Mosul

ISIS took Mosul in 2014 and declared a caliphate that the great majority of Muslim scholars rejected. Mosul was freed in 2017 and the group's last territory at Baghuz fell in 2019.

The site of the battle on the 2026 map. Shaded: Countries hit by major wars since 1979, Gaza and the West Bank.

Key facts

When: 2014 to 2017
Where: Mosul, Iraq
Sides: Iraq and coalition vs ISIS
Result: ISIS defeated, 2017 to 2019
Type: Modern wars
Chapter: 7. The Modern Muslim World

The wider picture: Nation states and modern wars

Most Muslim lands won independence between the 1920s and the 1960s. Since then the region has seen more war than almost anywhere else: Israel's wars with its neighbours, two Afghan wars, the Iran Iraq war, American wars in Iraq, civil wars in Syria and Yemen, and in 2026 a war on Iran.

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