Spillover of the Syrian civil war into the wider region began when the Iraqi insurgent group known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) started intervening in the conflict in 2012.
Throughout 2013, ISIL fought Syrian opposition groups, gaining control of numerous hamlets, villages, towns and cities in eastern and northern Syria.
[2][3][4] The Akashat ambush was a well planned assault against a Syrian Army convoy defended by Iraqi soldiers that took place on 4 March 2013, as the group was travelling in the province of Anbar, next to the border with Syria.
[7] This led to greater fighting throughout the country, Operation al-Shabah in May 2013 in which the Iraqi Army failed to wipe these militias out and the consolidation of several of them with ISIL.
In June 2014, ISIL launched an offensive in northern Iraq taking large swaths of the country and threatening Baghdad itself, thus turning the conflict into a full-scale war that lasted until 2017.
In June 2016, the Syrian Free Army, backed by the United States, overtook ISIL forces in the border town of al-Bukamal.
[9] The Syrian Civil War has led to incidents of sectarian violence in northern Lebanon between supporters and opponents of the Assad government, and armed clashes between Sunnis and Alawites in Tripoli.
[11] Fighting between supporters of the Sunni sheikh Ahmed Al-Assir, who is against Hezbollah's involvement in Syria, and the Lebanese army has killed at least 15 of its soldiers.
[13] On 17 September, Syrian Ground-attack aircraft fired three missiles 500 metres (1,600 ft) over the border into Lebanese territory near Arsal.
The attack prompted Lebanese president Michel Sleiman to launch an investigation, whilst not publicly blaming Syria for the incident.
The group were chased off into the hills by the Lebanese Army, who detained and later released some rebels due to pressure from dignified locals.
[19] From 2–5 August 2014, the Lebanese Army clashed with Syrian gunmen in the town of Arsal, which left over a hundred soldiers on both sides dead.
On 22 February 2015, the Turkish army invaded Syria via Kobani and drove to the Tomb of Suleyman Shah, which was dismantled and brought back to Turkey.
The tensions further escalated in summer 2015 with the 20 July bombing in Suruç, allegedly executed by an ISIL-affiliated Turkish group against Kurdish supporters.
The spokesperson also stated that "Jordan will not tolerate any infiltration attempt and will strike with an iron fist to whoever tries to disrupt Jordanian national security".
On 3 November, three Syrian tanks entered the demilitarized zone in the central Golan Heights as a number of mortar shells were fired into the area.
[51] A shell fired from Syria, where insurgents and government troops are locked in fierce fighting, exploded in the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights plateau on Sunday, 14 July 2013.
[citation needed] On 22 and 23 June 2015 two ambulances transporting wounded Syrian rebels were attacked by Druze protesters in the Golan Heights.
During the attack on the Iranian targets, Syrian anti-air defense systems shot down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet.
[54][55][56] The takeover of the city of Derna in Cyrenaica, Libya by the self-declared Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) took place in late 2014.
[61][62] On 26 June 2015, ISIL militants blew up a Shiite mosque in Kuwait City killing dozens and injuring hundreds.
Since 2015 and until July 2016, eight Islamic terrorist incidents have occurred in France, including fatal attacks in Île-de-France, Saint-Quentin-Fallavier and Paris.
[65] Since then, radical Islamic militants have assassinated Bangladeshi secularists, atheists, writers, bloggers, LGBT activists, Sufi and liberal Muslims, Hindu and Buddhist priests and Christian missionaries, as well as foreign expatriates from Europe and East Asia.
ISIL claimed credit for the attack and reportedly released photographs of both the gunmen and victims from inside the restaurant during the hostage crisis.