IS leader:

Group’s head lets power be shared so jihad can continue.

WASHINGTON The — Islamic State’s reclusive leader has empowered his inner circle of deputies as well as regional commanders in Syria and Iraq with wide-ranging authority, a plan to ensure that if he or other top fifigures are killed, the organization will quickly adapt and continue fighting, U.S. and Iraqi intelligence officials say.

The officials say the leader, Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, delegates authority to his Cabinet, or shura council, which includes ministers of war, fifinance, religious affairs and others.

The Islamic State’s leadership under al- Baghdadi has drawn mainly from two pools: veterans of al-Qaida in Iraq who survived the insurgency against U.S. forces with battle-tested-militant skills, and former Baathist offifficers under Saddam Hussein with expertise in organization, intelligence and internal security. It is the merger of these two skill sets that has made the organization such a potent force, the officials say.

But equally important to the group’s flexibility has been the power given to Islamic State military commanders, who receive general operating guidelines but have significant autonomy, according to U.S. and Kurdish officials. This means that fighters have limited information about the inner workings of the Islamic State to give up if captured, and that local commanders can be killed and replaced without disrupting the wider organization.