As of 2012, the destabilization of Syria had become dire. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the keystone of the campaign to restore the caliphate in the Middle East. Beginning over 30 years before, in the musty jails of Jordan, Zarqawi began growing a network of muslim extremists to battle alongside him in Afghanistan with the mujahideen. After receiving training from Osama Bin Laden, he later returned to Jordan where he would organize the most ruthless terrorist group in modern history, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.