Terror group confirms
death of Baghdadi and says he has been replaced by Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi
al-Qurayshi Islamic State has
confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and named Abu Ibrahim
al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as his replacement. Baghdadi and the terror
organisation’s spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, were both killed in US
operations in northern Syria at the weekend. The group’s media arm, Amaq, made
the announcements in an audio recording released on Thursday.
News of Baghdadi’s
successor had been widely anticipated among the ranks of the terror
organisation following the weekend raid that traced Baghdadi to a remote corner
of northern Syria after a hunt spanning more than half a decade. Little is
known about al-Hashimi, although his last name (al-Qurayshi) suggests that he,
as did Baghdadi, claims a lineage to the Prophet Muhammad, a position that
offered legitimacy in some quarters.
The recording offers
no information about the new leader, whose name was not among those mooted in
the days since the US raid. It calls on supporters to follow Baghdadi’s
directives and threatens western countries. “America, don’t you realise that
the Islamic State is now at the forefront of Europe and West Africa? It is
extended from the East to the West,” it says.
“Don’t you see that
you have become a laughing stock to the world? Your destiny is controlled by an
old fool who goes to sleep with one opinion and wakes up with another. Do not
celebrate or get arrogant.” Baghdadi’s death in northern Syria, a long way from
where it all began for the Islamic State and its forerunners in the deserts of
Iraq, was the latest in a series of blows for the group. It has been stripped
of all the land it once held and has lost nearly all its founding leaders after
more than five years of war.
The direction of the
organisation is now largely up to a new generation of leaders, who must
determine whether to pursue the goals set out by Baghdadi, or set a new course.
Central to the debate is whether to continue with the insurgency that made it
such a lethal presence in the region, or to boost affiliates elsewhere in the
world. Groups had pledged fealty to Isis in recent years as as the terror group
grew in influence.
Isis’s capacity to
launch spectacular terror attacks in Europe and beyond is thought to have been
diminished by the gruelling war that drastically eroded its ranks and
leadership. While so-called lone-wolf attacks remain a constant threat,
European intelligence agencies believe that efforts to disrupt the Isis’s
capability to launch sophisticated attacks have been largely successful.
Isis’s watertight
secrecy and aversion to digital technology has made it difficult to penetrate.
But Baghdadi’s demise was thought to have been brought about by at least one
source from within his inner circle – a development that will alarm the new
crop of Isis leaders. Kurds in Syria, and Iraqi intelligence officials, had
learned of Baghdadi’s whereabouts after cultivating human sources over many
months. That led to the discovery of Baghdadi’s hideout in the unlikely
location of Idlib.
Sumber: The Gurdian – 31
OCT 2019
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