Iraqi and Western sources reveal the identity of the new ISIS leader
Amman Today
publish date 2022-03-11 20:36:34
“Reuters” quoted Iraqi security officials and a Western security source, on Friday, as saying that the new leader, who was appointed by the Islamic State, on Thursday, is the brother of the first leader of the organization, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
ISIS announced its new leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, in a recorded audio message posted on the Internet.
The announcement came weeks after the killing last month of Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, the man who in turn succeeded al-Baghdadi in 2019 and became the group’s second named caliph.
Both Al-Baghdadi and Al-Qurashi were killed by blowing themselves up and members of their families during special US operations on their hideouts in northern Syria.
Two Iraqi security officials told Withers on Friday that the new leader’s real name is Juma’a Awad al-Badri, an Iraqi and the elder brother of al-Baghdadi.
A Western security official confirmed that the two men were brothers, but did not specify which one was older.
This is the first time that this recital has been revealed, since ISIS announced its new leader.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Little is known about al-Badri, but he comes from a close circle of the shadowy Iraqi jihadists who emerged in the wake of the 2003 US intervention.
More than a month after his death, the Islamic State organization “ISIS” confirmed for the first time, Thursday, the death of its leader in an American raid in northwest Syria last month, and announced his successor.
An Iraqi security official said: “Al-Badri is an extremist who joined the Salafi jihadist groups in 2003 and was known to always accompany al-Baghdadi as a personal companion and Islamic legal advisor.”
The official said Badri had long been the head of ISIS’s Shura Council, a leadership group that directs strategy and decides a “caliphate” when the “caliphate” is killed or captured.
Research by the late Iraqi Islamic State expert, Hisham al-Hashemi, and published online in 2020, said that al-Badri was the head of the five-member Shura Council.
The audio recording announcing the new leader stated that al-Qurashi had appointed him as his successor before his death.
The nickname “al-Qurashi” indicates that Badri, like his brother and ancestor, is believed to have traced his lineage from the Prophet Muhammad, giving him religious influence among his fellow jihadists.
Iraqi security officials and analysts said the new leader will continue to attempt attacks across Iraq and Syria and may have his own vision of how to carry out those attacks.
An Iraqi security official, who spoke to Reuters on Friday, said that Al-Badri had recently moved across the border from Syria, where he was holed up, and entered Iraq.
Badri will inherit control of critical financial resources, according to a report written in December by the United Nations sanctions monitoring team.
In Deir ez-Zor, where ISIS carried out a major attack recently targeting a prison holding thousands of its members, civilians began receiving threatening messages containing phrases such as “return to your religion” or “stay away from working with infidels,” according to a report in the British Independent newspaper.
“Recent estimates… put the group’s reserves between $25 and $50 million,” the report said, but added that the Islamic State spends more than it earns based on “extortion, looting and kidnapping for ransom.”
The Iraqi security official said that al-Badri has two other brothers, one of whom has been held by Iraqi security services for years, and said that the whereabouts of the other brother is unknown, but he is also believed to be an Islamic extremist.
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