Shattered Isis seeks new leader
Hiding in a three-storey building occupied by several families with children, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi directed the world’s most notorious Islamist terrorist group as it continued a deadly campaign of violence in the Middle East and inspired murderous attacks elsewhere.
Western intelligence agencies are searching for clues to the identity of the next Islamic State leader after it emerged that Qurayshi, 45, had died in the house in northwest Syria during a raid by US special forces troops.
A former Iraqi soldier, Qurayshi
took charge of Isis after the group’s founder, Abu Bakr alBaghdadi, was killed by elite American forces in October 2019.
It appears he knew it was only a matter of time before the commandos came for him as well. Scene photographs of Friday’s raid, during which Qurayshi blew himself up along with his wife and children, suggest his cinder-block home in Atmeh had been rigged with explosives in advance.
A stuffed bunny, a blue plastic swing and a crib could be seen in the ruins of the building, along with prayer mats and explosives.
Qurayshi and members of his family, including four women and six children, had occupied the top floor, with the floor below holding a lower-ranking Islamic State leader and his family. The ground floor and basement housed a family thought to have been unaware of the identities of the high-value targets living above them, US officials said.
Despite the loss of the so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and Baghdadi’s death, Isis had continued to carry out ambushes, assassinations and bombings under Qurayshi’s command. Last month the group seized a prison holding 3000 jihadists in the city of Hasakah, northeast Syria.
The Pentagon suggested Qurayshi, an officer in Saddam Hussein’s army, directly oversaw the attack by a 200-strong battalion of Isis fighters to ‘‘liberate’’ the prison. The militants were defeated by the Syrian Defence Forces after 10 days of fighting.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the planned raid more than a month ago after US forces said they were satisfied they would find Qurayshi where they did.
Anticipating that the jihadist might use explosives, US officials had commissioned an engineering study from afar to determine whether it would collapse and kill everyone inside. They concluded that enough of the building was likely to survive.
Monitors of jihadist groups say there is no obvious deputy to take
Qurayshi’s place. His main qualifications, at least as Isis advertised them, were his training as a religious scholar, and that he was descended from the tribe of the Prophet, the Quraysh, as Baghdadi also claimed to be.
That link to the Quraysh, and the apparent killing or capture of other senior leaders, would appear to pave the way for Abu Hamza alQurayshi al-Muhajir, chief spokesman for Isis, to become leader.
However, few believe Qurayshi’s death will have the same effect as that of either Osama bin Laden in 2011, or of Baghdadi, who so successfully revived the fear of jihadism amid the ruins of Syria and Iraq.