Al-Maliki, a Shiite Muslim who had been prime minister since 2006, was largely seen as responsible for sectarian tensions in Iraq of the kind that resulted in Sunni Muslims welcoming IS. He's also often blamed for the fact that, as the IS group arrived, the Iraqi military didn't fight back. Years of corruption and mismanagement meant the army was understaffed and underequipped. Soldiers just dropped their guns and fled.
A decade on from deadly attacks in Paris, the world's two most notorious jihadist groups Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda have significantly evolved and their branches still pose a global security threat, especially from Africa, analysts say. With strong central leadership, the groups were once able to train and then send commandos into Europe to carry out attacks such as the November 13, 2015 strikes in Paris that left 130 people dead.