Baghdadi ‘The Ghost’: World jihad’s low-profile boss

BAGHDAD: Discreet in his youth and - ed man, Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi rose through the ranks quietly and undisputed supremo.

Baghdadi may have been killed in a Syria stronghold of Raqa, although - tion from his Islamic |State group or the US-led coalition battling IS in Syria and Iraq.

Ghost,” has not been seen in public since he proclaimed himself “caliph” in the Iraqi city of Mosul three years ago.

have since turned—with massive simultaneous offensives by allied forces against both Mosul and Raqa.

has been rumored wounded or killed a number of times in the past.

in November last year after Iraqi forces supported by the aerial might of the coalition launched their reconquest of Mosul, the

In an audio recording, he urged his men to defend Mosul to the bitter end and Iraqi elite forces have gained huge ground but are still battling die-hard jihadists around the Old City.

Baghdadi was said to have left Mosul earlier this year and has since been reportedly spotted in various areas near the Syrian-Iraqi border.

But his whereabouts were never

“It is rather remarkable that the leader of the most image-conscious terrorist group is so low-key in terms of his own publicity,” said Patrick Skinner, an analyst with the Soufan Group intelligence consul

Introvert

antithesis to Osama bin Laden—is partly what Baghdadi, who has head, has owed his rise as well as his survival to.

the overlord of a jihadist state ruling over millions of inhabitants was born Ibrahim Awad al- Badri to a modest family in Samarra, north of Baghdad.

An introvert, he was mostly known locally for his skills as a footballer, a sport his group would later target as a product of the Western society jihadists claim to despise.

- sults were too modest to undertake a law degree and his eyesight too bad to join the army so he moved to the capital to study Islam, settling in the

“He comes across as someone who was never brilliant but was patient and hard- working,” said Sofia Amara, author of a recently- released documentary - ments on Baghdadi.

“He had a vision, early on, of where he wanted to go and what kind of organisation he wanted to create,” she said. “He is a secret planner.”

After US- led forces invaded

Strategist

It never carried out major attacks, however, and by the time he and detained at the Camp Bucca facility, he was still very much a second or third- tier jihadist.

which was later dubbed “the University of Jihad”, was where he became radicalized and started showing signs of the leader he is now.

“People there realized that this nobody, this shy guy was an astute strategist,” Amara said.

He was released at the end of security services arrested him twice but let him go because they did not know who he was.

Bucca, he pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the brutal - ous incarnations.

Baghdadi took over from his succes

Rapist

struggling Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), turning it into the independent IS group, and then launching its sweeping

Baghdadi grew up in a family divided between a religious clan and

Years later, his masterstroke as a jihadist leader was arguably to predecessors had either fought or ignored into his organization.

It gave his leadership the military legitimacy he personally lacked and formed a solid backbone for the future IS group, - ganda was combined with formi

Uncharismatic and an average orator, Baghdadi was described by - laimi, who now lives in Lebanon, as a “normal family man” who was good with children.

Baghdadi is thought to have had three wives, Asma al-Kubaysi, Isra al-Qaysi—from Iraq and Syria—and another, more recent, from the Gulf.

He has also been accused of having repeatedly raped girls and - cluding a pre-teen Yazidi girl and the US aid worker Kayla Mueller who was subsequently killed.