The Islamic State terrorist group
(ISIS) has confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, media
reported Tuesday, citing an IS statement.
According to the Al Sumaria News
broadcaster, Al-Baghdadi is dead and his successor will be named soon.
On June 16, the Russian Defence
Ministry said Al-Baghdadi was likely eliminated as a result of a Russian
Aerospace Forces strike on a militant command post in the southern suburb of
the city of Raqqa in late May.
The ministry noted that it was in
the process of confirming the information through various channels.
Al-Baghdadi appeared in the media
for the first time in 2014 when he declared the creation of a caliphate in the
Middle East.
Since then, the media outlets
have reported several times about the death of the IS leader, though the
information has never been confirmed.
NAN reports on June 23, experts
said if Al-Baghdadi is confirmed dead, he is likely to be succeeded by one of
his top two lieutenants.
Iyad Al-Obaidi and Ayad
Al-Jumaili, both were army officers under late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Experts on Islamist groups said
they see no clear successor but regard Al-Obaidi and Al-Jumaili as the leading
contenders, though neither would be likely to assume Baghdadi’s title of
“caliph” or overall commander of Muslims.
Armed groups fighting in the
region and U.S. officials say they have no evidence he is dead and many
regional officials are skeptical about the reports of his death.
Obaidi, who is in his 50s, has
been serving as war minister.
Jumaili, who is in his late 40s,
is head of the group’s Amniya security agency.
In April Iraqi state TV said
Jumaili had been killed, but that was not confirmed.
Both joined the Sunni Salafist
insurgency in Iraq in 2003, following the U.S.-led invasion which Saddam and
empowered Iraq’s Shi’ite majority.
They have been Baghdadi’s top
aides since airstrikes in 2016 killed his then deputy Abu Ali al-Anbari, his
Chechen war minister Abu Al-Shishani and his Syrian chief propagandist, Abu
Al-Adnani.
“Jumaili recognises Obaidi as his
senior but there is no clear successor and, depending on conditions, it can be
either of the two (who succeeds Baghdadi),” said Hisham Al-Hashimi, who advises
several Middle East governments on IS affairs.
Baghdadi awarded himself the
title of caliph, the chief Muslim civil and religious ruler, regarded as the
successor of the Prophet Mohammad, in 2014.
Obaidi or Jumaili would be
unlikely to become caliph because they lack religious standing and Islamic
State has lost much of its territory.
“They don’t belong to the Prophet
Mohammed’s lineage. The group has no longer ‘a land to rule’ or ‘Ardh
al-Tamkeen’.
“And none is well versed in
Islamic theology,” said Fadhel Ragheef, another Iraqi expert on the extremist
group.
“A caliph has to have an Ardh
al-Tamkeen, which he rules in accordance with Islamic law. Failing that, the
successor will just be recognized as the emir,” said Hashimi.
Emir is Arabic for prince, and is
a title that jihadists often use to describe their leaders.
By contrast, Baghdadi, born as
Ibrahim Awad al-Samarrai’ in 1971, comes from a family of preachers and studied
Islamic law in Baghdad.
The appointment of the new leader
would require the approval of an eight-member shoura council, an advisory body
to the caliph. (Sputnik/NAN)
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