Islamic State chief Abu Bakr alBaghdadi’s new life on the run
BAGHDAD/ERBIL: Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is on the brink of losing the two main centres of his ‘caliphate’ but even though he is on the run, it may take years to capture or kill him, officials and experts said.
Islamic State fighters are close to defeat in the twin capitals of the group’s territory, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, and officials say Baghdadi is steering clear of both, hiding in thousands of square miles of desert between the two. “In the end, he will either be killed or captured, he will not be able to remain underground forever,” said Lahur Talabany, the head of counterterrorism at the Kurdistan Regional Government. “But this is a few years away still.”
One of Baghdadi’s main concerns is to ensure those around him do not betray him for the $25 mn reward offered by the US to bring him “to justice”, said Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises Middle East governments on Islamic State. “With no land to rule openly, he can no longer claim the title caliph. He is a man on the run and the number of his supporters is shrinking as they lose territory.”
Iraqi forces have retaken much of Mosul, the northern Iraqi city the hardline group seized in June 2014 and from which Baghdadi declared himself “caliph” or leader of all Muslims. Raqqa, his capital in Syria, is nearly surrounded by a coalition of Syrian Kurdish and Arab groups. The last public video footage of him shows him dressed in black clerical robes declaring his caliphate from the pulpit of Mosul’s Grand al-Nuri mosque back in 2014.