Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"01/01/2013: The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) begins seizing control of territory in Syria, including the city of Raqqa. In April that year, al-Baghdadi changes his group's name to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil or Isis)." [BBC Timeline] "In response to rapid territorial gains made by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the first half of 2014, and its universally-condemned executions, reported human rights abuses and the fear of further spillovers of the Syrian Civil War, many states began to intervene against it in both the Syrian Civil War and the Iraqi Civil War. . . . In mid-June 2014, Iran, according to American and British information, started flying drones over Iraq, and, according to Reuters, Iranian soldiers were in Iraq fighting ISIL. . . . Since the airstrikes started, ISIL has been losing ground in both Iraq and Syria. There have been multiple accounts of civilian deaths from the airstrikes. . . . As of December 2017, ISIL is estimated to control no territory in Iraq, and 5% of Syrian territory, after prolonged actions. On 9 December 2017, Iraq declared victory in the fight against ISIL and stated that the war in Iraq was over. Consequently, at the end of 2017, territorially ISIL was mainly defeated." [Wikipedia]