Originating as the Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad in 1999, it pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2004, participated in the Iraqi insurgency that followed the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by Western forces, joined the fight in the Syrian Civil War beginning in March 2011, and was expelled from al-Qaeda in early 2014, (which complained of its failure to consult and "notorious intransigence").