ISIS APPOINTS NEW LEADER
FORMER SADDAM HUSSEIN ARMY OFFICER ‘TAKES TERROR GROUP’S REINS’
ISIS ‘already has a new leader’ barely a day after former chief Abu Bakr al-baghdadi died ‘like a dog’ in US strikes as the former Saddam Hussein army officer takes the terror group’s reins.
Abdullah Qardash was said to have been nominated by the now deceased al-baghdadi to run the group’s ‘Muslim Affairs’, as reported by Newsweek.
Little is known about Qardash, who once served under Saddam Hussein.
But he is understood to have already taken over a number of duties from al-baghdadi prior to his demise this week when he detonated a suicide vest.
An official told Newsweek: ‘Baghdadi was a figurehead. He was not involved in operations or day-to-day.’
‘All Baghdadi did was say yes or no —no planning.’
It comes as experts have warned the IS and the extremist jihadist movements have over the last one-and-a-half decades repeatedly shown resilience after the death of key leaders.
Jean-pierre Filiu, a professor in Middle East studies at Sciences-po in Paris, said his death represented a huge setback for IS, which at the height of its success in 2014 proclaimed a new ‘caliphate’ across parts of Iraq and Syria.
‘But it is not certain that such a symbolic loss will fundamentally affect the operational direction of Daesh (IS), which has long been in the hands of seasoned professionals,’ he told AFP.
‘In this respect, his demise could in the long run have even less impact than the killing of Osama bin Laden did on Al-qaeda,’ he added.