Ten Rings

"The Ten Rings aren't your typical terrorists. They've raised secrecy to an art form. We still don't have the first clue what's really behind them."

- Nick Fury to Phil Coulson

The Ten Rings is a terrorist organization that intends to destroy the world peace by any means necessary. It is believed to be led by a mysterious man known as the Mandarin. When they attacked and abducted Tony Stark in Afghanistan, he made a suit of armor to escape which turned him into the superhero known as Iron Man.

Foundation
"I'm talking about the Ten Rings." "Come again?" "The terrorist group historically associated with the Mandarin."

- Jackson Norriss and Trevor Slattery

The history of the Ten Rings is shrouded in mystery. Several members believed their leader, the Mandarin, had inspired generations of men since the Middle Ages, perhaps even further back in time, implying that the organization was hundreds of years old. Some even described the organization as "faith".

All branches of the Ten Rings operated as individual cells, with every cell operating independently of each another. The leaders of each cell had no idea who anyone was in any other cell save for one contact. Each cell would receive money and weapons and as long as they received them the leaders didn't ask questions.

Kidnapping of Tony Stark
"Who are these people?" "They are your loyal customers, sir. They call themselves the Ten Rings."

- Tony Stark and Ho Yinsen

By the beginning of the 21st century, the Ten Rings were operating mainly in Afghanistan. Stark Industries' second in command, Obadiah Stane sold weapons illegally to at least one cell to help them achieve their purposes, and later made a deal with them to attack and massacre a military convoy. The attack on the convoy stopped once they realized the convoy included Stark Industries' CEO Tony Stark on a business trip to Afghanistan. The cell took him prisoner, filmed a video informing Stane that he would need to pay them more to kill such a target, and meanwhile they attempted to force a captive Stark to build them a Jericho missile.

After weeks in captivity, Stark created a suit of armor powered by invention of a miniaturized arc reactor, rather than the weapon he was tasked to build, and successfully escaped. Stark upgraded the suit the following days after his return to the United States into the Iron Man armor, and attacked various camps of the Ten Rings, destroying their weapons from Stark Industries and their members.

Days later in the desert, the Ten Rings found the remains of the armor Stark used to escape and rebuilt it, informing Stane about it. Ten Rings commander Raza proposed a deal with Obadiah Stane, he would give him the armor free of charge only if Stane supplied him with an army of Iron Soldiers. Obadiah refused, instead paralysing Raza and taking the suit. Stane's men then executed the remaining Ten Rings soldiers, and possibly Raza.

New Attacks
"This strike is only Ten Rings' latest step in global destabilization. There will be more..."

- Richard Frampton

Some time after Tony Stark became Iron Man, S.H.I.E.L.D. began fighting the Ten Rings. On one occasion, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury sent a team of U.S. Navy SEALs to board a ship controlled by the Ten Rings in the port of Aden. However, Iron Man suddenly appeared and attacked the terrorists. Though the Seals were outnumbered by the terrorists, Iron Man had no problems with killing all the terrorists and saving the Seals.

Some time later, a member of the Ten Rings aided Ivan Vanko to travel to Monaco in order to seek revenge on Stark.

Around the same time, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff ruined one Ten Rings operation. She boarded the Ten Rings plane and caused its destruction. After that action, she was sent by Nick Fury to infiltrate Stark Industries under the guise of Natalie Rushman.

Soon, through various agents, the Ten Rings began buying parts of the Jericho missile from the Russian arms dealer Mikhail Fjodorov. When Fjodorov stopped dilivering parts of the missile, the Ten Rings agent Richard Frampton hired an assassin named Sofia to kill him. Frampton and his men successfully assembled the missile, which they intended to detonate near the border between Russia and North Korea, which would greatly destabilize the world peace. However, Sofia was followed by S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff who infiltrated the launch area and destroyed the missile. Both Frampton and Sofia were killed in the explosion, while the remaining Ten Rings agents were arrested by Phil Coulson and his team.

After Tony Stark became a consultant to S.H.I.E.L.D., the Ten Rings set a trap for James Rhodes, a friend of Stark and pilot of a suit similar to Iron Man's, in order to take him and his suit, but failed. The soldiers of the Ten Rings informed their leader, the Mandarin, that they managed to scan the suit during the battle of Hong Kong and take enough information that would help them with their revenge on Tony Stark.

Copy-Cat Terrorism
"Custom-made terror threat." "Yes! Yes! His think tank thinked it up, the pathology of the serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography. Ready for another lesson? Blah blah blah. Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life." "Your performance? Where people die?" "No, they didn't. Look around you, costumes, green screen. Oh, honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff. When I was, it was movie magic, love."

- Tony Stark and Trevor Slattery

After the battle of New York, Aldrich Killian, the founder of Advanced Idea Mechanics, needed to masquerade his failed experiments with the Extremis virus as terrorist attacks. His think tank co-opted the iconography of the Ten Rings for their deception. Killian employed the failed actor Trevor Slattery to pose as the Mandarin and publicly take responsibility for those "terrorist attacks".

The real leaders of Ten Rings, an organization with religious beliefs going back thousands of years, were not happy with this impostor posing as their leader.

Kidnapping of Trevor Slattery
"There's somebody who wants to meet you." "Do I know him?" "No. You took his name and now he wants it back." "Ahh. No, sorry, I still don't get it."

- Jackson Norriss and Trevor Slattery

After the battle on the Norco, Trevor Slattery was arrested and incarcerated at Seagate Prison. The Mandarin decided to meet him in person and take back his name. He sent a Ten Rings agent, Jackson Norriss, disguised as a documentarian, that went to the prison, seemingly to make an interview with Slattery. However, Norriss' real intention was to kidnap Slattery so the Mandarin himself could punish him for stealing his name.

During the interview, when Norriss told Slattery that the Ten Rings organization is real, Slattery didn't believe him. Then, Norriss suddenly took a pistol hidden in his camera and killed the prison guards in the room. Though Slattery tried to threaten Norriss with a pistol from one of the dead guards, Norriss easily disarmed him. Norriss then notified his colleagues about the situation via a Walkie-Talkie Wristwatch and ordered them to attack the prison. As Slattery stared in disbelief, Norriss told him that someone wants to meet him.

Weapons
Since the Ten Rings was one of the most powerful terrorist organizations in the world, their members were equipped with all types of military weapons, even experimental ones. Anything that could be stolen or bought on the black market would eventually find its way to the terrorists' arsenal. All sorts of rifles, machine guns, handguns, heavy weapons, and even tanks, were used by the Ten Rings.

Members

 * Mandarin - Leader
 * Raza
 * Abu Bakar
 * Ahmed
 * Omar
 * Cordo Gaines
 * Richard Frampton
 * Jackson Norriss
 * Unnamed Agent
 * Naib

Trivia

 * Jon Favreau has stated that the Ten Rings work for the Mandarin. The name of the organization is a homage to Mandarin's ten magical rings in Marvel Comics.