Attacks in Paris on Nov. 13 claimed by Islamic State left at least 129 people dead and scores more wounded in the worst terrorist assault in Europe for a decade. Below is a timeline of seminal events in the militant group’s history and leading up to the tragedy that French President Francois Hollande has called an “act of war.”

Shortly after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, who was born in Samarra in 1971 and whose real name is Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Al-Badri, helps set up an insurgent group to fight coalition troops.

February 2004: Baghdadi is arrested and sent to Camp Bucca, where he meets former Baathist military commanders and religious extremists.

In 2006, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who traveled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets and harbors ambitions to establish an Islamic state, creates an umbrella organization of Sunni insurgent groups led by his al-Qaeda in Iraq group. Baghdadi’s cell is among the first to join. Zarqawi dies in a U.S. airstrike and is succeeded by Abu Ayoub al-Masri, an Egyptian who announces the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq. Baghdadi becomes its head of religious affairs

May 2010: Baghdadi becomes the group’s leader following the death of Masri a month earlier in a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid, marking a shift in power within the organization from foreign fighters to Iraqi members

September 2012: A suicide car bombing in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit is the first major assault in a campaign to free jailed fighters unveiled by Baghdadi, who seeks to position himself as defender of Iraq’s disenfranchised Sunni minority. More than a year later, the group takes the western city of Fallujah

April 2013: The Islamic State in Iraq changes its name to The Islamic State of Iraq and The Levant, and becomes known as ISIL or ISIS. It advances through parts of eastern Syria, seizing oil wells and collecting taxes to fund its war chest

January 2014: Baghdadi’s militants take full control of the Syrian city of Raqqah, which becomes their de facto capital. Led by Baathist commanders, its fighters move across northern Iraq as the Iraqi army collapses, capturing Mosul and other cities to set up its territory on land straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border

February 2014: Al-Qaeda formally ends its affiliation with the group, having become increasingly frustrated with its brutality and independence. Reports emerge detailing Baghdadi’s harsh form of rule

June 29, 2014: The group declares itself a caliphate. Baghdadi soon after appears in a video delivering a sermon,

proclaiming himself caliph and calling on Muslims to help build an empire. He wears black, evoking the Abbasids in the 8th century, who also came to power vowing to return to what they called a pure form of Islam. The group shortens its name to Islamic State

Aug. 8, 2014: In response, the U.S. launches airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq

Aug. 19, 2014: British-born fighter Mohamed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, appears in a video beheading American journalist James Foley in retaliation for the U.S. air raids. The group’s slick propaganda campaign aimed at inspiring both fear and admiration is in full swing

Sept. 5, 2014: Days after the beheading of U.S. hostage Steven Sotloff, the Obama administration announces the formation of a coalition to bomb Islamic State in Iraq that includes the U.K., France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey and Italy

Sept. 13, 2014: Islamic State launches an offensive on the northern Kurdish Syrian city of Kobani, near the Turkish border, that ends in January with its defeat by Kurdish fighters backed by coalition air raids

Sept. 23, 2014: The coalition begins airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria. Partner nations now include Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates

November 2014: Baghdadi accepts a pledge allegiance by Libyan groups and announces the creation of three Islamic State franchises. He addresses a growing number of Saudi followers in an audiotape and setting out a list of targets, starting with the country’s minority Shiite in the oil-rich Eastern Province

Jan. 7, 2015: Attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Kosher grocery store in Paris leave 17 dead. Al-Qaeda in Yemen claims responsibility for the magazine assault, while the militant who attacked the store appears in a posthumous video declaring allegiance to Islamic State, signaling a cooperation between the groups at a grassroots level despite rifts between their leaders

Feb. 3, 2015: Islamic State broadcast video of Lieutenant Muath Safi Al-Kaseasbeh, a Jordanian pilot captured in late December near Raqqa being burnt alive in a cage, an escalation of its public brutality

March 12, 2015: Nigerian militant group Boko Haram pledges allegiance to Baghdadi

March 31, 2015: Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led warplanes retake Tikrit, their first major battlefield success. About two months later, Ramadi, capital of Iraq’s western Anbar province falls to Islamic State, highlighting the war’s ebb and flow

May 20, 2015: Islamic State captures Palmyra, home to Syrian army installations and near a highway linking Damascus with Syria’s eastern provinces. It tries to capitalize on the city’s symbolism, destroying ancient monuments and filming mass executions in its Roman amphitheater. Days later, militants tear down the last border posts between Iraq and Syria as part of their goal of destroying the 1919 Sykes-Picot agreement

June 26, 2015: Several months after a deadly attack on the Bardo Museum in Tunis, the group claims responsibility for the killing of 38 people at Tunisian beach resort that devastates Tunisia’s crucial tourism sector

September, 2015: As Islamic State seeks to profit from chaos in Yemen, its fighters carry out one of its biggest suicide bombings in the country, striking a Shiite mosque in Sana’a during Eid prayers and killing 30 people

Sept. 30, 2015: Russia enters the Syrian civil war to back President Bashar al-Assad against rebel groups supported by Western powers as well as Islamic State

Oct. 11, 2015: Two suicide bombers kill more than 100 people attending a rally of pro-Kurdish activists and civic groups in Ankara. The government blames Islamic State for the worst attack of its kind on Turkish soil

Oct. 31, 2015: Russian passenger jet crashes in the Sinai desert in Egypt killing all 224 people on board in an attack claimed by Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt

Nov. 12, 2015: Islamic State claims twin bombs that killed at least 44 people in its first attack in Beirut, targeting a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group that has been supporting Assad
     

Nov. 13, 2015: Kurdish forces drive Islamic State fighters from the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, a significant advance in a campaign to regain territory seized by the militant group. The U.S. says it’s “reasonably certain” it killed Jihadi John in an airstrike in Syria

France Says Three Teams Led Terror Killing Spree in Paris

As investigators hunt for leads in Europe’s worst terror attack in a decade, the Paris prosecutor laid out how three teams of assailants managed to kill at least 129 people in and around one of the world’s most heavily policed capitals.

Suicide bombers and gunmen linked to the Islamic State group “were behind how the terrorist acts unfolded,” Francois Molins said in a televised press conference late Saturday.

One of the suicide bombers in the attacks has been identified as Ismael Omar Mostefai, who lived in a Paris suburb and probably spent a few months in Syria during 2013 and 2014, Le Monde reported, citing Chartres Mayor Jean-Pierre Gorges, who’s also a member of parliament, and another unidentified source.  

Police found a Syrian passport beside another attacker, who blew himself up outside the Stade de France during a France-Germany soccer match, Molins said. In Belgium at least three people have been arrested in connection with the deadly attacks, local prosecutors said.

Faced with the atrocity that was committed, we are more determined than ever in our struggle against terrorism,” Molins said. “Quite probably there were three terrorist groups, who were coordinated, who originated these barbaric acts.”

In Belgium, the raids followed French requests related to a Belgian-plated rental car found near Le Bataclan concert hall, Belgium’s Federal Prosecutor’s office told reporters.

Police and intelligence agencies across Europe and beyond are racing to determine who was responsible for Friday’s assaults, which French President Francois Hollande called an “act of war.” The slaughter compounds one of the deepest crises facing European leaders since World War II as they struggle to accommodate a stream of refugees from war-torn Syria while also facing jihadist retribution for air strikes on Islamic State.

Suicide Bombers

According to Molins, one of the three teams operating on Friday consisted of a trio of suicide bombers at the Stade de France, who wore identical explosive vests. A second drove to multiple locations in east-central Paris, firing hundreds of rounds from Kalashnikov rifles. And a third went to Le Bataclan, where 89 people were slain before police stormed the theater, killing one gunman. The other two killed themselves with explosive vests, Molins said.

Molins stressed that information is still preliminary, and that police are working on the basis of witness statements and surveillance-camera footage. It’s unclear whether additional suspects are still being pursued.

In a statement posted on Twitter claiming responsibility, Islamic State said the violence was in retaliation for French air strikes on what it calls its “caliphate” in parts of Iraq and Syria. The attacks are “the first drop in the rain, and should serve as a warning,” it said.

Attack Strategy

For the extremist group, the killings signal “a structural shift in its modus operandi, representing a prelude to additional attacks in the West,” political consultancy Eurasia Group said in a note to clients. Islamic State’s leadership “is committing to a strategy of pursuing retaliatory attacks against any country conducting airstrikes on its bases in Iraq and Syria,” the note said.

Ninety-nine people remain in critical condition, among a total of 352 injured, according to Molins. The death toll, which he warned could still rise due to the number of seriously wounded victims, is the largest for a terror attack in Europe since the 2004 train bombings in Madrid.

Among the rapid developments in the aftermath of the assault:

The Greek government said the Syrian passport found at the Stade de France was registered for a refugee claim on the island of Leros on Oct. 3. A second person involved in the attacks was also a migrant who transited Greece, Agence France-Presse reported.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the hard-right National Front political party, said the attacks were evidence of the need for France to “take back definitive control of its borders” and strip French terrorists of their nationality.

Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister, said the United Nations’ COP21 climate talks scheduled for late November and early December in Paris would go ahead as planned, with reinforced security. Over 120 world leaders are expected to attend the conference.

The Paris stock exchange operator said it would open trading as normal on Monday. Schools will also be open nationwide.

France’s main Muslim groups issued a joint statement condemning the attacks and calling on Muslims to donate blood.

Spurred by the Paris attacks, 17 nations in Vienna overcame policy differences over Syria and adopted a timeline to elect a new government by 2017.

The events in Paris are certain to intensify debate about accepting migrants fleeing Syria and Iraq for the European Union, where hundreds of thousands have sought shelter this year. Politicians in some countries argue the open-door policy advocated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel will let more jihadists into the 28-nation bloc.

The attacks are also likely to reopen the issue of how to better integrate France’s Muslim population, the largest in Europe.

‘Covered in Blood’

The coordinated assaults began around 9:20 p.m. on Friday local time with three suicide bombings near the Stade de France, where Hollande was among some 80,000 spectators. Almost simultaneously, gunmen with automatic rifles jumped from cars outside various bars and restaurants in the vibrant 10th and 11th arrondissements of the capital, shooting at Parisians who moments earlier had been enjoying a normal start to the weekend.

Theresa Cede, a 39-year-old who works in the telecommunications sector, was at the Bataclan when the gunmen burst in, shooting people standing near her on a balcony. “I hid underneath the body of a man who was shot in the head. I was covered in blood,” Cede said. Another woman lying next to her was severely wounded, though Cede escaped unharmed.

“I don’t know how many guardian angels I had looking out for me,” she said.