The Iraqi Civil War is a conflict that began as part of the Iraqi insurgency but intensified into a full civil war war. It began in 2014 when militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) began taking large swaths of territory in northern Iraq. The response of Prime Minister Al-Maliki was unpopular and ineffective, forcing him to step down. Uthmaan Al-Amjad, an Iraqi nationalist, came to power, and forced the Islamic State out of Iraq, into neighboring Syria, where the remaining remnants were defeated by the Syrian Army. Following the war, Al-Amjad reformed Iraq, vastly improving the country.