A New Understanding of ISIS After the Paris Attacks

Mr. Cazeneuve said that the investigation on the attacks in Paris was “making quick progress” but that the threat of terrorist attacks “remains high.”
--Police Raids in France and Belgium Seek Paris Attack Suspects

The decision by President George W. Bush and allies to marginalize Iraq’s political and military elite angered and disenfranchised some who formed the heart of the Islamic State.
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

Some experts wonder if the Islamic State has moved to complete its apocalyptic vision in a final battle with the forces of what it calls Rome, or the West.
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

The group’s new chief was just 38 years old, a nearsighted cleric, not even a fighter, with little of the muscle of his predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the godfather of Iraq’s insurgency...
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

The French airstrikes on Raqqa began at 7:50 p.m. Paris time, first taking aim at an Islamic State “command post, jihadist recruitment center and weapons and ammunition depot,” the Defense Ministry said.
--France Strikes ISIS Targets in Syria in Retaliation for Attacks

Warplanes continued to hover over the city close to midnight, according to residents and activist groups.
--France Strikes ISIS Targets in Syria in Retaliation for Attacks

It ... achieved its resurgence through two single-minded means: control of territory and, by design, unspeakable cruelty.
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

Residents described the assaults as a deliberate desecration of a decidedly Parisian way of life.
--Blocks From Charlie Hebdo, Area Known for Bonhomie Is Shaken Again

A group of seasoned Iraq analysts saw the conflict as basically a stalemate...
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

The French Defense Ministry said in a statement that the air raid, coordinated with American forces, was led by 12 French aircraft...
--France Strikes ISIS Targets in Syria in Retaliation for Attacks

The nearly unchecked flow of migrants into Europe from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries had already provoked a political backlash before the Paris attacks...
--Police Raids in France and Belgium Seek Paris Attack Suspects

The Sunnis were just trying to survive,” recalled Col. Kurt Pinkerton.... “It was more about survival and assimilation.”
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

“When they chose that neighborhood,” she added, “they wanted to attack an area that is a place of bourgeois bonhomie, of liberalism and liberty.”
--Blocks From Charlie Hebdo, Area Known for Bonhomie Is Shaken Again

Mr. Hollande told a conference of French mayors that...“Daesh has financial and oil resources, and has created young radical Islamists through complicity in Europe and within our own country”...
--France Unsure if Raid Killed Top Suspect in Paris Attacks

Even in the weeks before the Paris attacks, intelligence analysts were also deeply divided over the future of the Islamic State’s terrorism campaign.
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

But the videoed decapitations and wanton sectarian killings of Muslim civilians...provoked an unusual rebuke in 2005 from Bin Laden’s No. 2...
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

But because foreign fighters, some steeped in extremist ideologies, often proved to be the best organized and funded, they gained momentum on the battlefield.
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

...foreign fighters, some steeped in extremist ideologies, often proved to be the best organized and funded...
--In Rise of ISIS, No Single Missed Key but Many Strands of Blame

Meanwhile, the authorities in France announced that they had conducted sweeping police raids around the country overnight, detaining 104 people.
--Police Raids in France and Belgium Seek Paris Attack Suspects

Mr. Hollande told a conference of French mayors that...he would travel to Washington... and to Moscow...to discuss the formation of “a large coalition” to act “decisively” against the Islamic State...
--France Unsure if Raid Killed Top Suspect in Paris Attacks