ISIS has begun choosing its new leader following US raid last week – with a commander who was declared KILLED in air strike among 'battle-hardened' jihadists on list
ISIS has begun choosing its new leader from a close circle of battle-hardened Iraqi jihadists following the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi during a raid by US special forces last week.
Security officials and independent analysts believe there are four frontrunners to lead the terrorist group, including one extremist who was declared dead by the White House last year.The death of Qurayshi, 45, was another crushing blow to ISIS two years after the violent Sunni Muslim group lost long-time leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar raid in 2019.
Qurayshi, who was otherwise known as 'The Professor' and had a $10million bounty on his head, set off a suicide bomb that killed himself as well as members of this family, after US forces swooped in on his northern Syrian camp.
The Iraqi jihadi never publicly addressed his fighters or followers, avoided electronic communications and oversaw a move to fighting in small devolved units in response to intense pressure from Iraqi and US-led forces.
But those following ISIS closely expect it to name a successor in the coming weeks, as the group which imposed brutal rule over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2017 continues a stubborn and deadly insurgency.
Following the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi (left) in a raid, ISIS is choosing a new leader, with Abu Yasser al-Issawi (right), who was believed to be dead, among the favourites
American helicopters carrying 24 commandos arrived just after 1am. When they left two hours later ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was dead
Fadhil Abu Rgheef, an Iraqi expert who advises its security services, said there were at least four possible successors.
'These include... Abu Khadija, whose last known role was Iraq leader for Islamic State, Abu Muslim, its leader for Anbar province, and another called Abu Salih, of whom there's very little information but who was close to Baghdadi and Qurayshi,' he said.
'There's also Abu Yasser al-Issawi, who is suspected to be still alive. He's valuable to the group as he has long military experience.'
Issawi's death in an air strike in January 2021 was reported at the time by both Iraqi forces as well as the US-led military coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
But an Iraqi security official confirmed there were strong suspicions Issawi is still alive.
'If he's not dead he'd be a candidate, he's tried and tested in planning military attacks and has thousands of supporters,' the official said.
The official added that Islamic State was likely carrying out a security sweep for potential leaks that led to the death of Qurayshi before convening to choose or announce a successor.
Hassan Hassan, editor of New Lines magazine which has published research on Qurayshi, said the new leader would be a veteran Iraqi jihadist.
'If they choose one in the coming weeks they'll have to choose someone from among the same circle... the group that was part of the Anbari group which operated under (the name) ISIS since the early days,' he said.
Islamic State emerged from the militants that waged an increasingly Sunni Islamist, sectarian-driven insurgency against US troops and Iraqi forces after 2003.
The Islamic State of Iraq, also known as al Qaeda in Iraq, was an offshoot of the global al Qaeda organisation of Osama Bin Laden and the precursor to ISIS, which took shape in the chaos of Syria's civil war across the border.
The death of Qurayshi, 45, was another crushing blow to ISIS two years after the violent Sunni Muslim group lost long-time leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured) in a similar raid in 2019
Baghdadi and Qurayshi, both members of al Qaeda in Iraq from the start, did time in US detention in the mid-2000s.
In contrast, none of the four potential successors to Qurayshi had been captured by US forces, one security official and one army colonel told Reuters.
Officials and analysts in various countries agree ISIS is under more pressure than it's ever been and will never restore its self-styled caliphate. But they are divided on how significant a setback Qurayshi's death is for the group.
Some say the fight against ISIS will suck in the United States and its allies for years to come as it develops into a permanent insurgency with new leaders ready to take the reins.
'In Syria, Islamic State units work as a devolved network of individual groups in order to avoid them being targeted. We don't therefore believe that Qurayshi's death will have an enormous impact,' one of the Iraqi security officials said.
An aerial image released by the Pentagon shows the compound where ISIS emir al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi lived. He ran his terror network through a lieutenant living on the second floor
The top floor of the house was all but destroyed by the force of the suicide blast that killed al-Qurayshi. It was so powerful, said locals, that bodies were flung clear of the building'It's also become more difficult to follow them because they've long stopped using mobile phones for communication.'
Since their territorial defeat in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019, Islamic State leaders have found it increasingly easy to move between the two countries, helped by a gap in areas of control between different armed forces, some officials say.
Security and military officials said the 600 km (372 mile)long border with Syria made it a very hard for Iraqi forces to prevent militants infiltrating via underground tunnels.
Lahur Talabany, former counter-terrorism chief for Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, said some IS leaders can travel on a route across the full expanse of Iraq.
'When you see attacks increasing in a particular area I wouldn't be surprised if somebody important has been through that region,' he told Reuters. 'The caliphate was defeated but ISIS was never eradicated. I don't believe we managed to finish the job.'
Islamic State's possession of land in Iraq and Syria set it apart from other like-minded groups such as al Qaeda and became central to its mission when it declared a caliphate in 2014, claiming sovereignty over all Muslim lands and peoples.
The raid was carried out close to Atmeh, a Syrian town close to the Turkish border. To complicate matters, it is territory held by feuding extremist groups
An aerial view of wreckage around the site after an operation carried out by US forces targeting a high ranking jihadist in northern Syria last night
The remains of a U.S. helicopter used in the raid on Thursday morning. Officials said it developed a mechanical problem and was later destroyed
Fiercely anti-Western, the group also draws on Sunni-Shi'ite tensions, saying Shi'ites were infidels who deserve to be killed.
Abu Rgheef said the new leader could have stronger military credentials than Qurayshi, who Iraqi officials say was seen by followers as more of an Islamic legal mind than a military man.
'Attacks and operations will change in character depending on the style of the new leader. The new one might believe in big and intensive attacks, bombs or suicide bombers,' he said.
Despite Qurayshi's low profile and operational secrecy, his killing is likely to affect the group's fighters, analysts say.
Hassan said Qurayshi's removal would reduce morale. 'ISIS is also locked into personalities and who's most trusted,' he said.
Aaron Zelin, senior fellow at the Washington Institute, said a figurehead is very important to ISIS.
'Whenever a leader of the group is killed, your oath is to the (next) leader, the individual themselves, and not to the group.'
ISIS leader known as The Professor who blew himself up rather than face justice: Ex-Saddam officer al-Qurayshi who was imprisoned alongside Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, eliminated his rivals and was once a US INFORMANT
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi's role as the head of ISIS meant he carried an American bounty of $10 million - yet at other times in his complicated life, the man nicknamed 'The Professor' had also been a U.S. informant.
During his rise to the top of the terrorist group he was known as cruel but popular figure among the ISIS rank and file.
He replaced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after his predecessor blew himself up with a suicide vest during a U.S. raid in 2019.
His real name was Amir Mohammed Saeed Abdul-Rahman al-Mawla. But on being elevated to the top job he took the nom de guerre of al-Qurayshi - a name that signifies links to the tribe of the Prophe Muhammad.
In his two years at the top, he kept himself hidden away. There are almost no public photos of him in existence and he did not take part in ISIS propaganda videos.
Earlier in his career he is believed to have been an officer in Saddam Hussein's military who forged an alliance with al-Baghdadi in prison before becoming his enforcer and chief policymaker.
Al-Qurayshi was once known to U.S. officials as a cooperative informant, who divulged details to American forces on the Islamic State in Iraq. He was captured in 2007 or 2008, and spent months in an American detention camp in Iraq.
Defense Department documents described an at-times 'cooperative' informant who under interrogation revealed details on the group that he would go on to lead.
According to a statement by Amaq, ISIS's press agency, Baghdadi appointed Al-Qurayshi to run the group's day-to-day operations in August 2019, making him the heir-apparent before his former boss killed himself during the raid by US forces in Syria.
In 2020, the U.S. doubled the bounty on the new ISIS leader's head to $10 million, as they released this photo of him
In 2020, the U.S. doubled the bounty on the new ISIS leader's head to $10 million. But al-Qurayshi maintained a low profile - he did not appear in public, and rarely released any audio recordings. His influence and day-to-day involvement in the group’s operations is not known, and he has no known successor.
Al-Qurayshi - also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari - was born in Tal Afar, a Sunni-majority town in Iraq, in 1976 - before joining the military while Saddam Hussein ruled the country.
Following the invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003 and President Bush's move to disband the country's military, he found himself locked in jail accused of having links to al-Qaeda.
Languishing in a cell at Camp Bucca, al-Qurayshi formed a close bond with Baghdadi, who was then fomenting the extremist religious code that would provide the ideological grounding for the death cult that became ISIS.
After his release al-Qurayshi served as a religious commissar and a general sharia judge for al-Qaeda, according to researchers at the S. Rajartnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
Al-Qurayshi was tasked with establishing an institute for training judges and clergymen in the campus of al-Imam al-Adham College in Mosul, likely in part where 'The Professor' nickname came from.
When ISIS emerged as a splinter group from Al Qaeda's Syrian branch he changed allegiances, where he became Baghdadi's enforcer.
Working close to Baghdadi,he was responsible for eliminating anyone who disagreed with his style of leadership, which is where he earned his other nickname, 'The Destroyer'.
From there he became the group's chief policymaker and legislator, known for enforcing its strict brand of Islam and Sharia Law punishments.
Caliphate leader: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi detonated his own suicide vest during the targeted raid on his lair in Syria's Idlib province and killed three of his children in the blast. He is shown in a still from a video released in April, having not been seen since he spoke at the Grand Mosque in Mosul in 2014
He is thought to have personally welcomed Baghdadi into Mosul in 2014 after ISIS took the city - announcing their presence as the world's foremost terror group.
It was from the minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul that Baghdadi gave a speech announcing the formation of ISIS's so-called Caliphate.
In capturing Mosul, ISIS had killed thousands of Yazidi residents, and enslaved Yazidi women under the guise of enforcing Sharia law.
There were disagreements among ISIS leadership about enslaving the Yazidi women, but it was al-Qurayshi led the organization's more extremist leaders in insisting on it, according to News Lines Magazine.
President Joe Biden said al-Qurayshi was directly responsible for the prison strike, as well as the mass killings of the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014.
'He was responsible for the recent brutal attack on a prison in northeast Syria ... He was the driving force behind the genocide of the Yazidi people,' Biden said Thursday. 'We all remember the gut-wrenching stories, mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages, thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery, rape used as a weapon of war.'
On August 7, 2019 Amaq announced that al-Qurayshi had taken over day-to-day running of the terror group, while Baghdadi concentrated on drumming up religious fervour in the group's aims.
The selection of al-Qurayshi drummed up debate within ISIS, even reaching its members in prison, over whether he was of Turkmen or Arab origin. The 'caliph' of ISIS must be a descendant of the prophet Mohammed, therefore an Arab.
A Syrian man takes a picture of a blood soaked kitchen at the scene of a US anti-terror raid in Atmeh, Idlib
Al-Qurayshi was keen to prove his Arab origin. Until 2020, U.S. and Iraqi officials believed the head of ISIS was a Turkman, which they weaponized to undermine his claim to leadership. Late reports confirmed his Arab descent.
Al-Qurayshi spent his last days in Idlib province, an area held by insurgent groups hostile to IS.
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