The Islamic State group's Iraq and Syria "caliphate" was eradicated in March, five years after it was proclaimed, largely reducing the jihadist militants to scattered sleeper cells.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday announced that the group's elusive leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed during a nightime US raid in northern Syria.

Here is a recap:

- 'Caliphate' declared -

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) declared in June 2014 that they had set up a caliphate, under the leadership of Baghdadi, in territory seized in Syria and Iraq.

Since January that year they had been in control of Syria's northern city of Raqa. They also seized part of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, on the Iraqi border, as well as positions in the northern province of Aleppo.

In Iraq, they took Mosul and Sunni Arab areas bordering the autonomous Kurdistan region in the country's north in June.

Raqa and Mosul became the two de-facto IS capitals.

- Atrocities -

Rebranded the Islamic State, they carried out beheadings, mass executions, rapes, abductions and ethnic cleansing in Raqa.

Some of the atrocities were broadcast on video, used as propaganda.

In Iraq, IS seized the historic home of the Yazidi minority in Sinjar region, forcing children to become soldiers and using thousands of women as sex slaves.

- Anti-jihadist coalition -

In August 2014, US warplanes struck IS positions in northern Iraq.

Washington formed a coalition of more than 70 countries to fight the group in both Iraq and Syria, deploying 5,000 soldiers.

- Defeats in Iraq -

In March 2015, Iraq announced the "liberation" of Tikrit, north of Baghdad. In November, coalition-backed Kurdish forces retook Sinjar.

In 2016, Anbar provincial capital Ramadi was retaken, as was the city of Fallujah.

In July 2017, then Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the jihadists' defeat in Mosul.

In December, Abadi announced a final victory against the IS.

- Defeats in Syria -

Kurdish forces drove jihadists out of the city of Kobane, on the Turkish border, in January 2015.

In August 2016, the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) recaptured Manbij in Aleppo province.

Backed by Turkish forces, rebels retook Jarabulus, and then, in February 2017, Al-Bab, the last IS bastion in Aleppo province.

In March 2017, Syrian troops backed by Russian jets took back the ancient town of Palmyra.

In October 2017, the SDF announced the full recapture of Raqa.

The Kurdish-led SDF proclaimed the defeat of the "caliphate" in March 2019 after seizing Baghouz, the IS's final bastion in eastern Syria.

- Baghdadi video -

On April 29, the IS released a video featuring a man said to be Baghdadi, making his first purported appearance in five years, acknowledging IS's defeat in Baghouz while threatening "revenge" attacks.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on August 20, said the IS group remained a threat in Syria and Iraq, and in some areas had even gained power despite the elimination of their "caliphate".

- Escape of prisoners -

In October a Turkish offensive against Kurdish militants in northern Syria following the withdrawal of US troops from several bases in the area, raised fears of an IS resurgence.

On October 13, Kurdish authorities said nearly 800 relatives of foreign members of IS had escaped from a displacement camp in Ain Issa after a nearby Turkish bombardment.

Ten days later, Washington announced more than 100 IS prisoners had escaped Syria in the chaos since Turkey's incursion.

- Baghdadi's demise -

On Sunday October 27, Trump announces that Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest during an overnight raid by US special forces deep in northwest Syria, killing himself and three of his children.

The US president said the IS leader had been trapped in a tunnel by the special forces and his body had been mutilated by the blast, "but test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification".

Witnesses had earlier reported nightime gunfire, low flying aircraft and air strikes around the village of Barisha in Idlib province.

US involvement in Syria since 2011
Paris (AFP) Oct 27, 2019 - Here is a recap of Washington's involvement in the Syrian conflict, following US President Donald Trump's announcement on Sunday that Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself during a US military operation.

- Pressure on Assad -

On April 29, 2011, a month after the first protests in Syria that were met with brutal force by the regime, Washington imposes sanctions on several Syrian officials.

The measures extend to President Bashar al-Assad the following month.

On August 18, US President Barack Obama and Western allies for the first time explicitly call on Assad to stand down.

In October, the US ambassador leaves Syria for "security reasons". Damascus recalls its ambassador from Washington.

- Obama backs off 'red line' -

In August 2013, the Syrian regime is accused of carrying out a chemical attack near Damascus that killed more than 1,400 people, according to Washington.

Despite having vowed to act with force if Syria crossed the chemical weapons "red line", Obama at the last minute pulls back from punitive strikes on regime infrastructure.

Instead, on September 14, he agrees to a deal with Moscow -- Assad's main backer -- that is meant to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

- US targets IS -

On September 23, 2014, the US and Arab allies launch air strikes in Syria against the Islamic State (IS) group, expanding a campaign underway in neighbouring Iraq.

The biggest contributor to the coalition, Washington deploys 2,000 soldiers, mostly special forces.

In October 2015, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-Syrian Arab alliance of some 50,000 fighters, is created with US backing.

Dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, it receives US training and aid in the form of arms, air support and intelligence.

The SDF eventually overruns IS in northeastern Syria, driving out the jihadists from their last patch of territory in the village of Baghouz in March 2019.

- Trump orders strikes -

On April 7, 2017, US forces fire a barrage of cruise missiles at Syria's Shayrat airbase, believed to be the launch site of a chemical attack that killed 88 people in Idlib province.

It is the first direct US action against Assad's government and President Trump's most significant military decision since taking office in January 2017.

On April 14, 2018, the US -- with the support of France and Britain -- launches new retaliatory strikes after an alleged regime chemical attack on the then rebel-held town of Douma, in which some 40 people were killed.

- Withdrawal announced -

On December 19, 2018, Trump announces that all of the roughly 2,000 US troops in Syria will be withdrawn, but Washington goes back on the decision.

On January 16, 2019, a suicide attack claimed by IS kills four US servicemen and 15 others at a restaurant in Syria's northern city of Manbij. It is the deadliest attack against US forces since they deployed.

On August 7, Turkish and US officials agree to jointly manage a buffer zone between the Turkish border and areas in Syria controlled by the YPG, which Istanbul considers a "terrorist" threat.

- US steps aside -

But on October 6, Washington announces that US forces would withdraw from the border areas to make way for a "long-planned operation" by Turkish forces.

Turkey launches its military operation on October 9 against Kurdish militants in northern Syria.

Washington announces on October 13 the withdrawal of some 1,000 US soldiers deployed in northeastern Syria.

On October 24, Washington announces it is beefing up its military presence in northeastern Syria near key oil fields.

- Trump: Baghdadi dead -

On October 27, Trump says Baghdadi killed himself by detonating a suicide vest during a nighttime raid by US special forces in Syria's Idlib province.

Eight helicopters launch the raid after Baghdadi was "under surveillance for a couple of weeks," Trump says in a televised address.

Baghdadi is cornered in an underground tunnel, where he detonates the suicide vest, killing himself and three of his children, Trump says.

"It was brutal," Trump adds.

Related Links
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Chemical weapons watchdog checking Kurdish allegations in Syria
The Hague (AFP) Oct 22, 2019
The UN's chemical weapons watchdog said Tuesday it was checking Kurdish allegations that Turkish forces fired non-conventional weapons in northern Syria, but emphasised it had not launched a formal investigation. "OPCW experts are engaged in the process of assessing the credibility of allegations concerning the situation in Northern Syria," the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement. The Hague-based body added however that "the OPCW has not launched an in ... read more