Audio By mid-2014, the organization known to some as Daesh and to others as ISIS or the Islamic State had declared a caliphate, capitalizing on the vacuum left by the destructive wars in Iraq and Syria. Within a year, it had claimed larges swaths of land there and gained affiliates and inspired followers in more than a dozen other countries — initiating a reign of terror against all who did not conform to its rigid, violent interpretation of Sharia. But in late 2015, ISIS became the focus of international military action that included airstrikes and eventually bloody door-to-door combat in Iraq and Syria, while the manhunt was on for supporters in other countries.