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The pinnacle of Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, died as he lived most of his life: off the grid within the jihadist underworld.
Little is understood concerning the ISIS chief, whose actual identify is Amir Muhammad Stated Abdel-Rahman al-Mawla, or different members of the group’s senior command. However his dying in a raid by U.S. commandos in Syria on Thursday was a major blow to the phobia group and a victory for U.S. counterterrorism efforts.
Whereas he was nowhere close to as distinguished as his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died in the same U.S. operation in 2019, “Mr. Qurayshi nonetheless instructions lots of respect inside jihadi circles and is understood to be very smart and capable of assume strategically,” stated Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst on the Soufan Group, a safety consulting agency based mostly in New York.
Mr. Clarke stated that Mr. al-Qurayshi had stored a low profile, which helped him elude an American-led manhunt but in addition might have hampered his capability to develop the Islamic State’s international community and model. In March 2019, ISIS misplaced the final piece of territory from its so-called caliphate in elements of Syria and Iraq.
“The trade-off has been, he’s a ghost, and never precisely lively to encourage jihadist recruits,” Mr. Clarke stated.
“The subsequent ISIS chief might be somebody comparatively unknown, which can current the U.S. and its allies with a problem by way of intelligence assortment and mapping his community. Nevertheless it’s additionally a problem for ISIS, significantly if the following chief will not be somebody with a fame on par with earlier jihadist leaders.”
Mr. al-Qurayshi, who was 45 and born in Iraq, was named the pinnacle of ISIS after Mr. al-Baghdadi died in October 2019 in related circumstances: detonating a suicide vest as U.S. forces raided his hide-out in Syria’s Idlib Province. As soon as he took up that mantle, the USA put a bounty of as much as $10 million on his head.
The U.S. authorities stated he “helped drive and justify the kidnapping, slaughter, and trafficking of the Yazidi non secular minority in northwest Iraq and in addition led among the group’s international terrorist operations.”
He was captured by U.S. forces in Iraq in early 2008. The date of his launch will not be identified. Whereas in American custody, he appeared cooperative in interrogations and even offered details about different ISIS operatives, based on interrogation stories that have been later made public.
A day after his seize, the U.S. navy’s Central Command stated that operations in Mosul, Iraq, had resulted within the seize of “a wished particular person believed to be the deputy Al Qaeda in Iraq chief for the community working within the metropolis.” It stated the person had “beforehand served as a choose of an unlawful courtroom system concerned in ordering and approving abductions and executions.”
Earlier, Mr. al-Qurayshi had served briefly within the Iraqi navy earlier than the autumn of Saddam Hussein and accomplished a Grasp’s diploma in Islamic Research on the College of Mosul in January 2007. He informed interrogators he joined the Islamic State in Iraq quickly after that.