The terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday (Nov. 13), that left 129 people dead and hundreds more injured, were the latest in a string of high profile violent incidents against civilians thought to be perpetrated by members of the Islamic State.

Just a day before the Paris attacks, suicide bombers affiliated with the Islamic State killed 43 people in a Beirut suburb. The group is also suspected of downing a Russian jetliner departing Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on October 31, killing all 224 passengers on board. These recent attacks suggest the group's ability and new determination to conduct large, coordinated assaults outside its immediate territory in Iraq and Syria, significantly increasing its threat to Western nations. If the Islamic State is indeed responsible for these latest high causality incidents, it would raise the civilian death toll outside of Iraq and Syria to nearly 1,000 since January, according to a New York Times analysis.

Also known as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) and Daesh (an acronym for the Arabic al-Dawla al-Islamiya al-Iraq al-Sham), the Islamic State emerged in 2013 from the chaotic aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq. It quickly established itself as a formidable foe in June 2014 after capturing Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

But much mystery still remains about this strikingly tenacious and sophisticated militant group, whose brutal attacks and beheadings were originally confined to Iraq and Syria. The following hand-picked videos from around the Web explain the Islamic State's origins, what it wants, how it operates and the surprisingly sophisticated media tactics it uses to spread its message of terror and attract new recruits from around the world.

Two takes on the origins of ISIS

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What is The Islamic State? Five Videos about the Extremist Militant Group