Sec. 111. Findings
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Congress makes the following findings: The terrorist organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS)poses a grave threat to the people and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria, to regional stability, and to the national security interests of the United States and its allies and partners. ISIS holds significant territory in Iraq and Syria and is a growing threat in other countries and has stated its intention to seize more territory and demonstrated the capability to do so. ISIS has claimed responsibility for or conducted horrific terrorist attacks, including hostage-taking and killing, in Sousse, Tunisia; Ankara, Turkey; the Sinai in Egypt; Beirut, Lebanon; Paris, France, against a Russian charter plane, and elsewhere. ISIS has brutally murdered United States citizens, as well as citizens of many other countries. ISIS has stated that it intends to conduct further terrorist attacks internationally, including against the United States, its citizens, and interests. ISIS has committed despicable acts of violence and mass executions against Muslims, regardless of sect, who do not subscribe to the depraved, violent, and oppressive ideology of ISIS, and has targeted innocent women and girls with horrific acts of violence, including abduction, enslavement, torture, rape, and forced marriage. ISIS has threatened genocide and committed vicious acts of violence against other religious and ethnic minority groups, including Iraqi Christians, Yezidi, and Turkmen populations. ISIS finances its operations primarily through looting, smuggling, extortion, oil sales, kidnapping, and human trafficking. As a result of advances by ISIS and the civil war in Syria, there are more than 4,000,000 refugees, more than 7,500,000 internally displaced people in Syria, and nearly 3,200,000 internally displaced people in Iraq. President Barack Obama articulated a multidimensional approach in the campaign to counter ISIS, including supporting regional military partners, stopping the flow of foreign fighters, cutting off the access of ISIS to financing, addressing urgent humanitarian needs, and exposing the true nature of ISIS. In August 2014, President Obama directed the United States Armed Forces to build and work with a coalition of partner nations to conduct airstrikes in Iraq and Syria as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and defeat ISIS. Since August 2014, United States and coalition nation aircraft have flown more than 57,000 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria, including airstrikes that have destroyed staging areas, command centers, thousands of armored vehicles, oil and other financing infrastructure, and other facilities and equipment of ISIS. Coalition airstrikes have killed at least 100 high-value individuals, including a United States strike against Mohamed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John . ISIS is under pressure from a coalition of 65 nations, which is conducting air strikes, supporting local forces on the ground, and cutting off financial support to ISIS, thereby evicting ISIS from as much as a quarter of the territory it previously controlled.