Full Length: The Islamic State – Unprecedented Access

VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings. Watch more the result above.

The Islamic State, otherwise known as ISIS and ISIL, is a hardline Sunni jihadist group with past ties to al Qaeda in Iraq. The group has conquered large areas of terrirtory in Iraq and Syria, and has announced it intends to reestablish the caliphate and has declared its leader, the shadowy Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the caliph.

The supposedly unexpectedly advances the Islamic State made across Syria and Iraq in June — and prior — shocked most of the world, thought the signs were there since they took Fallujah. But, as Vice has stated, “it’s not just the group’s military victories that have garnered attention — it’s also the pace with which its members have begun to carve out a viable state.”

As its defined in literature, the Islamic State, despite what President Obama has claimed, is in fact a nation-state. Further, if you watch the video above, it’s pretty clear that it is Islamic, in nature.

Cash flows in to the tune of at least $1 million each day, while they have already seized U.S. weapons during its advances on Mosul and other major cities in Iraq.