An extreme Islamist group makes dramatic gains in Iraq

IN THE past year, The Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has taken swathes of territory across northern Iraq and eastern Syria, exploiting turmoil in the region. In the past week the scale and audacity of their attacks have increased. On June 10th, the group, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, captured Mosul, Iraq’s second city, before racing south and capturing Tikrit, 140km (87 miles) north-west of Baghdad. These gains mean they control an area the size of Jordan, with a force of up to 11,000. This proto-state has not emerged out of the blue: ISIS has held the Syrian town of Raqqa since last summer and the Iraqi town of Falluja for the past six months, imposing its own strict moral code and collecting taxes. On June 15th, ISIS released video footage showing the execution of over 1,000 Iraqi soldiers.