Beirut: The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.
“We mourn you… commander of the faithful,” said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi – presented as the jihadist group’s new spokesman – in an audio statement.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world’s most wanted man, was killed Sunday in a US Special Forces raid in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib. The IS also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group’s previous spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.
The statement said the jihadist group’s legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-year-old Iraqi-born jihadist chief’s death.
“The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed on a replacement,” said the seven-minute message.
Little is known about Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, whose name was seldom mentioned as a possible successor the multiple times that Baghdadi was reported killed in recent years.
“We don’t know much about him except that he is the leading judge of IS and he heads the Sharia (Islamic law) committee,” said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi expert on IS.
The IS spokesman also issued a stark warning to the United States, whose President Donald Trump announced Baghdadi’s death in a televised address from the White House.
“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said Sunday and added that Baghdadi ‘died like a dog’.
In the new audio message, the new IS spokesman described Trump as ‘a crazy old man’ and warned the US that the group’s supporters would avenge Baghdadi’s death.
“Do not rejoice America,” warned the spokesperson. “The new chosen one will make you forget the horror you have beholden… and make the achievements of the Baghdadi days taste sweet.”
The spokesman also referred to an earlier call by Baghdadi for the thousands of IS fighters held in Syrian and Iraqi prisons to be freed. Syrian Kurdish forces run prisons in northeastern Syria where they say around 12,000 IS suspects are held.
Most of those prisoners are Iraqi and Syrian but the detainees also include more than 2,000 foreigners who hail from more than 50 different countries.
With aerial and logistical assistance from an international coalition led by the US, Iraqi and Syrian forces have wrested back all the territory lost to IS in 2014.
AFP