Foreign

New Leader Of ISIS Is Dead

Published

5 years ago

October 29, 2019

The replacement leader of ISIS has been killed.

According to President Trump, “Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops. Most likely would have taken the top spot – Now he is also Dead!

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1189172468159864832

Washington(CNN) President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that “American troops” have “terminated” ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s “likely” replacement.“Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops. Most likely would have taken the top spot – Now he is also Dead!” Trump tweeted.

A US official told CNN that “the President was referring to ISIS spokesperson Abu Hasan al-Muhajir.”

A senior State Department official told reporters Monday that al-Muhajir was killed by US forces in Aleppo province near Jarablus. “He was killed very close to the northeast, very close to the Euphrates River, near Jarablus,” the official said. “He was killed by US forces.”

The official described al-Muhajir as both a spokesperson and “kind of a number two” to Baghdadi.Mazloum Abdi, the general commander of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), also said Monday that al-Muhajir was killed in a coordinated operation between the US military and SDF intelligence officers near Jarablus in northern Syria.

The White House and the national security council did not say whether it is accurate that “American troops” were responsible for the death. The Pentagon said it had nothing to provide beyond the President’s tweet.

What remains of ISIS — the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — is yet to acknowledge the death of Baghdadi who was killed in a raid by US forces in northern Syria on Saturday.

At this early stage it’s not clear who will succeed him, especially now with the death of al-Muhajir, but a long-time Baghdadi companion and religious scholar would seem to be a leading candidate.

He is known within jihadi circles as Abdallah Qardash, but the US government identifies him as Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla and is thought to have known Baghdadi for at least 15 years. They were both detained at a US-run prison known as Camp Bucca soon after the coalition’s invasion of Iraq in 2003, though it’s unclear if that’s where they first met.