Timeline of the Islamic State (2025)

This article is about IS-related events in 2025. For other time periods, see List of terrorist incidents linked to the Islamic State.

This is a timeline of Islamic State (ISIS)-related events that occurred in 2025.

Timeline

January

• 1 January – 2025 New Orleans truck attack: An ISIS inspired man drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, then exited the truck and engaged in a shootout with police before being fatally shot. Fifteen people were killed, including the perpetrator, and at least fifty-seven others were injured.
• 2 January – Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), enabled by United States Central Command (CENTCOM) forces, conducted a D-ISIS operation, near Dayr az-Zawr, Syria, resulting in the capture of an ISIS attack cell leader. The operation lasted until 3 January.
• 7 January – Four SDF fighters were killed in an attack by two ISIS gunmen in the Jazara Mashhour area in western Deir ez-Zor countryside, Syria.
• 10 January:
  • The Iraqi Air Force conducted an airstrike in the Hamrin Mountains, Diyala Province, resulting in four members of the Islamic State, including two senior leaders being killed.
  • SDF kill four ISIS militants in a coalition-backed SDF security operation in the Bako area in Al-Hasakah countryside, Syria.
• 11 January – The Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS)-led Syrian interim government thwarted an attempted suicide bombing attack on the Sayyidah Zeinab shrine, a prominent Shia shrine outside Damascus.
• 15 January – At least ten people are killed in an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ISCAP) on the village of Makoko in Lubero Territory, North Kivu.
• 15 January – An SDF fighter was executed by ISIS cells and his body was dumped in the western part of Abu Khashab town in the western countryside of Deir ez-Ezor, Syria.
• 22 January – A Chinese national in Takhar Province, Afghanistan was killed in a shooting. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack.
• 26 January – Malam-Fatori Suicide Bombing: An Islamic State suicide bomber drove a vehicle with explosives into a convoy of Nigerian troops that were targeting ISWAP militants in Malam-Fatori, Borno State, Nigeria, killing himself and 27 soldiers. Several other troops were critically injured.
• 31 January:
  • CENTCOM forces, conducted precision airstrikes in the vicinity of Kirkuk, Iraq, killing five ISIS operatives.
  • Uganda announced that it was going to deploy Ugandan People's Defence Force troops to its border with eastern Congo due to the worsening security situation against the Allied Democratic Forces insurgency.

February

• 1 February – United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) forces conducted airstrikes in the Golis Mountains, Somalia, killing a senior ISIL attack planner and other “key figures” of the ISIL group.
• 3 February – Senior ISIL Somalia commander, Abdirahman Shirwac Aw-Saciid, head of the group's assassination squad, surrendered to authorities in the Cal Miskaad mountains, in the northeastern Puntland state.
• 4 February – Puntland security forces attacked Islamic State fighters, near the village of Qurac. Islamic State responded with drones, suicide attacks and infantry charges. Regional officials said Somali forces lost 15 soldiers in the fighting and at least 57 Islamic State fighters were killed.
• 6 February – A SDF fighter was killed and another wounded in an ISIS attack in Deir ez-Zor, Syria.
• 7 February – Allied Democratic forces raided Christian Villages and killed residents in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces
• 9 February – SDF commando forces conducted a precise security operation aimed at dismantling an ISIS terrorist cell in the town of Markada in the southern countryside of Al-Shaddadi, Hasaka, Syria.
• 10 February:
  • CENTCOM forces conducted an airstrike in the vicinity of Kirkuk, Iraq, killing two ISIS operatives.
  • One ISIS fighter was shot dead and another blew himself up during an SDF raid in Markadah town in the southern Al-Hasakah countryside, Syria.
• 11 February – ISIS carried out a counterattack against Somali forces in the Togjaceel valley, in the Cal Miskaad mountains, Puntland. Regional officials said Somali forces lost 28 soldiers and more than 70 Islamic State fighters were killed.
• 12 February:
  • CENTCOM forces conducted an airstrike in the vicinity of Rawa, Iraq, killing five ISIS operatives.
  • Kasanga massacre: Allied Democratic Forces entered the village of Mayuba in Lubero Territory, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo and abducted at least 70 Christian civilians. The captives were subsequently taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga, North Kivu, were they were beheaded.
• 13 February – SDF’s Military Operations Teams (TOL) conducted a security operation against and an ISIS terrorist cell in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor and capturing the cell leader, Abdul Rahman Al-Aziz, along with two other terrorists.
• 15 February – 2025 Villach stabbing attack: A 23-year-old Syrian carried out a series of random stabbings against six pedestrians. The attack resulted in the death of a 14-year-old boy and injuries to five other individuals. Police later recovered a recording of the suspect swearing an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State.
• 16 February – USAFRICOM forces conducted airstrikes in the Puntland region of Somalia, killing at least 16 militants including two senior militants identified as the group’s bomb-makers and a bomb manufacturing factory was also destroyed.
• 25 February – United Kingdom forces, conducted precision airstrikes across the Aleppo region of Syria against ISIS.
• 26 February – A Tajik national was arrested in Brooklyn by American authorities on charges that he conspired to support ISIS and ISIS-K by facilitating US$70,000 in payments to ISIS-affiliated individuals in Turkey and Syria.
• 28 February – 2025 Darul Uloom Haqqania bombing: A suicide bombing in Akora Khattak, Pakistan during Friday prayers, resulting in the deaths of at least seven individuals, including the prominent cleric and head of the seminary, Hamid Ul Haq Haqqani. Additionally, approximately 20 others sustained injuries.

March

• 2 March – A 17-year-old Arab-Israeli is arrested in Jisr az-Zarqa, Israel on suspicion of planning terror attack after swearing loyalty to ISIS. At the time of his detainment, he was carrying documents detailing explosives production.

• 3 March – Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) thwart a series of terrorist attacks on the Moscow metro and a Jewish religious institution in the Moscow region. The man accused of planning the attacks was killed in a confrontation with security forces.
• 5 March – Russian counter-terrorism forces killed four ISIS-K affiliated militants who were plotting an attack against a regional branch of the interior ministry in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan.
• 6 March – Syrian Democratic Forces, enabled by CENTCOM forces, conducted a raid in the vicinity of Shahil, Syria and captured Salah Mohammad Al-Abdullah, an ISIS cell leader.
• 7 March – Abdulrahman Mohammed Hafedh Alqaysi, a former Iraqi refugee and legal permanent resident of Richmond, Texas, pled guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organisation. From 2015 to 2020 Alqaysi admitted to providing material support and resources to the media arm of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham group known as the Kalachnikov team.
• 10 March – A SDF member was killed in an ISIS attack in eastern Deir ez-Zor, Syria.
• 12 March:
  • Syrian Democratic Forces conducted a raid in al-Hol camp, southeast of Al-Hasakah, arresting Salah Abdullah al-Abd, an ISIS cell leader and financier.
  • An Asayish member was killed and two others were injured in an ambush by ISIS cells in the Al-Hazima area in Al-Raqqa, Syria.
• 13 March:
  • Israeli police and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) arrested a Tayibe man, suspected of collaborating with and pledging allegiance to ISIS. The Tayibe man is suspected of filming Israel Defense Forces (IDF) en route to Tulkarm and sharing footage via Telegram to help terrorists prepare for an ambush.
  • CENTCOM forces, with support and coordination of the Iraqi security forces, conducted an airstrike killing a head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Abdullah Maki Musleh al-Rifai. Abdullah Maki Musleh al-Rifai was the Global ISIS #2 leader, Chief of Global Operations, and the Delegated Committee Emir, effectively holding a top leadership position within the organization. One other ISIS operative was also killed.
• 15 March – Iraqi security forces capture Umm Hussein, the wife of the former leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria Abdullah Maki Musleh al-Rifai and two additional ISIS terrorists during an operation.
• 19 March:
  • SDF and International Coalition Forces launched a joint security campaign in SDF-controlled Al-Salhabiyah town in the countryside of Al-Raqqah, arresting several suspects for “belonging to ISIS."
  • Two SDF fighters were wounded in an ISIS IED attack in Al-Jarthei town, Deir ez-Zor, Syria.
  • Syrian Democratic Forces, enabled by International Coalition forces, conducted a raid in the vicinity of Al-Tabaka City, west of Al-Raqqa, Syria and captured Raafat Rahmoun, a military Emir of ISIS in the so-called “Al-Khair and Al-Baraka” provinces, which correspond to Hasaka and Deir ez-Zor.
• 20 March – A 19-year old West Australian man is sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by the Perth District Court on one count of transmitting violent extremist material online and one count of using a carriage service to cause offence after sharing Islamic State-produced videos that included beheadings and recordings encouraging violence. He is the first person convicted and sentenced in Australia for transmitting violent extremist material online under the new Commonwealth offence introduced in January 2024 as part of amendments to Australian counter-terrorism legislation.
• 21 March:
  • Iraqi security forces arrested two Islamic State militants in a village in eastern Salahuddin province.
  • The Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), in cooperation with the Operations Directorate of the Kurdistan Region's Asayish Service, conducted an operation in which two Islamic State militants were arrested, one in Salahuddin province and the other in Sulaymaniyah province in northern Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan. The operations also resulted in the destruction of 4 ISIS hideouts, a tunnel, and a cave between the provinces of Kirkuk and Salahuddin, the Hamrin Mountains and Hatra Island.
  • Five jihadists were found guilty of holding French journalists Didier Francois, Edouard Elias, Nicolas Henin, and Pierre Torres captive in Syria between June 2013 and April 2014 for Islamic State. Two of the five militants were sentenced in absentia, having believed to be deceased.
  • Fambita mosque attack: The Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP) targeted a mosque in the southwestern Niger town of Fambita, Kokorou, during Ramadan prayer services, killing at least forty-four civilians and injuring thirteen others. The militants also set ablaze the local marketplace and several residential structures.
• 22 March – Two ISIS militants opened fire on a civilian and his car oil stores in Al-Hawayej Village in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor for “not paying zakat.”
• 24 March – USAFRICOM forces conducted airstrikes in the Cal Miskaad Mountains, Somalia, targeting militants entrenched in the Miiraale Valley.
• 25 March:
  • Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by International Coalition forces, launched a security operation in the town of Al-Tuwaina in the countryside of Heseke, arresting ISIS millitant Abdullah Khedir Nasser Al-Froukh.
  • USAFRICOM forces, in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, conducted airstrikes in the vicinity of the Golis Mountains, Somalia.
• 26 March – ISIS militants attack a SDF position in Al-Janynah, Deir Ezzor, Syria with an RPG
• 27 March – Two ISIS militants shoot opened fire on a civilian and his car oil stores in Al-Hawayej Village in the eastern countryside of Deir ez-Zor for “not paying zakat.”
• 29 March – USAFRICOM forces, in coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, conducted airstrikes in the Southeast of Bosasso, Puntland and the Cal Miskaad Mountains, Somalia.