The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a Sunni extremist group, has declared the birth of a caliphate — an Islamic state that claims the allegiance of all Muslims — on territory that it controls in Iraq and Syria. The caliphate is unlikely to exist for long: It is surrounded by enemies that see it as a threat to their existence.
But ISIL's advances into Iraq have eroded the fragile equilibrium that held that state together and may spur the Kurds to follow suit and declare their own long-sought state of Kurdistan.
Thus far, ISIL has seized hundreds of square kilometers of land that straddles the border of Iraq and Syria. In Syria, it controls territory in Deir Ezzor near the Iraq border, Raqa in the north and parts of Aleppo province.