The Islamic State is an increasingly menacing threat to the Middle East, and the extremist group uses brutal tactics to instill fear in its enemies.

And now the group has threatened to raise its flag over the White House, according to a Vice documentary published on the same day that U.S. President Barack Obama authorized airstrikes on ISIS militants in Iraq if U.S. personnel were threatened.  

VICE News reporter Medyan Dairieh spent three weeks embedded with the Islamic State, gaining unprecedented access to the group in Iraq and Syria as the first and only journalist to document its inner workings. In part one, Dairieh heads to the frontline in Raqqa, where Islamic State fighters are laying siege to the Syrian Army’s division 17 base.