Documentary backdrop image for Confronting ISIS (2022)

2022113 minPG-13documentary

Confronting ISIS

2022113 minPG-13documentary

The U.S.-led campaign against ISIS is scrutinized through the lens of key regional players and pivotal events from 2014 to 2016, highlighting both achievements and setbacks.

Genres

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

Confronting ISIS

2022• 113 minPG-13

Synopsis

The U.S.-led campaign against ISIS is scrutinized through the lens of key regional players and pivotal events from 2014 to 2016, highlighting both achievements and setbacks.

Synopsis

ISIS, a militant group that gained notoriety for its brutal tactics, faced significant challenges as the U.S.-led coalition aimed to degrade and destroy its influence in the Middle East. Veteran FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith reports from five key countries-Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Turkey-examining the complexities of the anti-ISIS campaign. The documentary chronicles the fall of Mosul in 2014 and the subsequent two years of military and political efforts, highlighting both successes and ongoing threats posed by the group.

Comments

What are people saying?

Play More Like This

How the Obama Administration Handled the Rise of ISIS (2024)

How the Obama Administration Handled the Rise of ISIS

The Obama administration's policies and decisions following the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq contributed to the rise of ISIS and its territorial expansion in 2014.

How the Obama Administration Handled the Rise of ISIS

The Truth Behind America's Failed War on ISIS (2025)

The Truth Behind America's Failed War on ISIS

America's coalition of 26 nations struggled to defeat 30,000 ISIS jihadists due to complex supply lines, shifting alliances, and controversial military support.

The Truth Behind America's Failed War on ISIS

The Secret History of ISIS (full documentary) (2019)

The Secret History of ISIS (full documentary)

The rise of ISIS is examined through the lens of missed warnings and critical decisions made by the U.S. in the years leading up to its formation.

The Secret History of ISIS (full documentary)

Inside the War Against ISIS: The Organisation From Hell (2025)

Inside the War Against ISIS: The Organisation From Hell

In Iraq and Syria, a coalition of 26 international powers, led by the United States, struggled to combat 30,000 ISIS jihadists while navigating complex alliances with armed groups linked to Saudi Arabia and Al Qaeda.

Inside the War Against ISIS: The Organisation From Hell

Losing Iraq (full documentary) (2021)

Losing Iraq (full documentary)

Key political decisions by the Bush and Obama administrations significantly contributed to the rise of ISIS in Iraq following the U.S. troop withdrawal.

Losing Iraq (full documentary)

Obama at War: Inside the Obama Administration's Syria Policy (2023)

Obama at War: Inside the Obama Administration's Syria Policy

President Barack Obama’s administration faced complex challenges in navigating the Syrian conflict and combating the rise of ISIS, revealing deep internal debates and strategic dilemmas.

Obama at War: Inside the Obama Administration's Syria Policy

Mosul (full documentary) (2023)

Mosul (full documentary)

Over a million civilians remained trapped in Mosul during the Islamic State's rule, used as human shields amid intense urban combat.

Mosul (full documentary)

Battle for Iraq (full documentary) (2023)

Battle for Iraq (full documentary)

Iraqi-born reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad provides an on-the-ground perspective of the intense 2016-17 battle for Mosul, revealing the complexities faced by civilians and military forces.

Battle for Iraq (full documentary)

Return From ISIS (2020)

Return From ISIS

An American mother and her children found themselves in ISIS' caliphate in Syria, facing the challenges of returning home afterward.

Return From ISIS

ISIS: How Iraqi Jihadi's Operate In Syria (2014)

ISIS: How Iraqi Jihadi's Operate In Syria

Moderate opposition fighters in Syria face increasing challenges from radical groups like ISIS, leading many to abandon hope and flee to Turkey.

ISIS: How Iraqi Jihadi's Operate In Syria

Explore Confronting ISIS

Where else to watch

Mosul (2019)

Mosul

2019•1h26m•★7.0TMDB

Nine months of eyewitness footage captures the battle to reclaim Mosul from the Islamic State, featuring various Iraqi ethnic groups and their struggles.

Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS (2017)

Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS

2017•1h39m•★7.1TMDB

Syria's civil war has led to widespread destruction and suffering, with personal accounts revealing the rise of ISIS and its impact on civilians.

Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS

Inside IS: 10 Days in the Islamic State (2016)

Inside IS: 10 Days in the Islamic State

2016•51m•★7.3TMDB

Local residents live in constant fear of beheadings, enslavement, and torture under ISIS rule in territories controlled by the group.

Inside IS: 10 Days in the Islamic State

End of Truth (2017)

End of Truth

2017•57m•★7.0TMDB

Exclusive footage and interviews reveal the chaos of kidnappings in Syria as ISIS gained power during the country's civil war.

Highway to Hell: The Battle of Mosul (2017)

Highway to Hell: The Battle of Mosul

2017•42m•★3.8TMDB

Three perilous trips to the front lines in Mosul, Iraq, document one of the largest urban battles since World War II in October 2016.

Highway to Hell: The Battle of Mosul

Browse more like this

How the Obama Administration Handled the Rise of ISIS (2024)

How the Obama Administration Handled the Rise of ISIS

The Obama administration's policies and decisions following the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq contributed to the rise of ISIS and its territorial expansion in 2014.

How the Obama Administration Handled the Rise of ISIS

No digital watch option in your country

The Secret History of ISIS (full documentary) (2019)

The Secret History of ISIS (full documentary)

The rise of ISIS is examined through the lens of missed warnings and critical decisions made by the U.S. in the years leading up to its formation.

The Secret History of ISIS (full documentary)

No digital watch option in your country

Losing Iraq (full documentary) (2021)

Losing Iraq (full documentary)

Key political decisions by the Bush and Obama administrations significantly contributed to the rise of ISIS in Iraq following the U.S. troop withdrawal.

Losing Iraq (full documentary)

No digital watch option in your country

Mosul (full documentary) (2023)

Mosul (full documentary)

Over a million civilians remained trapped in Mosul during the Islamic State's rule, used as human shields amid intense urban combat.

Mosul (full documentary)

No digital watch option in your country

Battle for Iraq (full documentary) (2023)

Battle for Iraq (full documentary)

Iraqi-born reporter Ghaith Abdul-Ahad provides an on-the-ground perspective of the intense 2016-17 battle for Mosul, revealing the complexities faced by civilians and military forces.

Battle for Iraq (full documentary)

No digital watch option in your country

Return From ISIS (2020)

Return From ISIS

An American mother and her children found themselves in ISIS' caliphate in Syria, facing the challenges of returning home afterward.

Return From ISIS

No digital watch option in your country

The Secret History of ISIS (2016)

The Secret History of ISIS

2016•54m•★9.5TMDB

Top secret files from the early 2000s reveal the misleading narratives presented to the American public by senior US officials regarding ISIS's origins.

The Secret History of ISIS

Frontline Fighting: Battling Isis (2015)

Frontline Fighting: Battling Isis

2015•47m•★7.2TMDB

Three British volunteers with no military training join the Kurdish People's Protection Units in Rojava, Syria, to fight against the Islamic State.

Frontline Fighting: Battling Isis

Our War (2016)

Our War

2016•1h9m•★8.3TMDB

Over 30,000 fighters from around the world have joined the Islamic State since 2013, prompting three Westerners to fight against them in northern Syria.

Stacey on the Front Line: Girls, Guns and Isis (2017)

Stacey on the Front Line: Girls, Guns and Isis

2017•45m•★8.0TMDB

In September 2016, an all-female Yazidi battalion fights to reclaim Mosul from ISIS, driven by a desire for revenge against their loved ones' murders.

Stacey on the Front Line: Girls, Guns and Isis

Inside Mosul (2018)

Inside Mosul

2018•1h12m•★7.3TMDB

Eight months were spent with an elite Iraqi Army unit during the battle for Mosul, which was occupied by Islamic State fighters from 2014 to June 2017.

Is this your film?

If you made this film or hold the rights to it, we'd like to talk. We can license it and pay you a share of what it earns.

License it with us →