BEIRUT: The militant group of the Islamic State confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi.
"We cry to them … commander of the faithful," said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi, introduced as the group's new spokesman, in an audio statement.
Baghdadi, who has led the Islamic State since 2014 and was the most wanted man in the world, was killed Sunday in a raid by US special forces in the Syrian province of Idlib.
The group also confirmed the murder in another raid the day after the group's previous spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir.
The statement said the group's legislative and advisory body met after the death of the 48-year-old jihadist chief born in Iraq.
"The shura council of the Islamic State met immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed" in a replacement, the seven-minute message said.
Little is known about Hashimi, whose name is rarely mentioned as a possible successor to the multiple times it was reported that Baghdadi was killed in recent years.
"We don't know much about him, except that he is the chief IS judge and heads the Sharia committee," said Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi expert in IS.
The IS spokesman also issued a severe warning to the United States, whose president Donald Trump announced the death of Baghdadi in a televised speech from the White House.
"He died after running into a dead end tunnel, moaning, crying and screaming," Trump said Sunday, adding that Baghdadi "died like a dog."
In the new audio message, the new IS spokesman described Trump as "an old madman" and warned the United States that the group's supporters would avenge Baghdadi's death.
"Do not rejoice in the United States," he warned, "the new elected will make you forget the horror you have had … and will make the achievements of the days of Baghdad taste sweet."
The spokesman also referred to a previous Baghdadi call for thousands of Islamic State fighters detained in Syrian and Iraqi jails to be released.
Syrian Kurdish forces run prisons in northeastern Syria, where they say there are about 12,000 IS suspects.
Most of those prisoners are Iraqis and Syrians, but the detainees also include more than 2,000 foreigners who come from more than 50 different countries.
Symbolic impact
With the air and logistics assistance of an international coalition led by the USA. In the US, Iraqi and Syrian forces have recovered all the territory lost by the IS in 2014.
The newly formed EI group fighters that year swept much of the Sunni heart in Iraq and Syria to declare a "caliphate" that expanded further to reach approximately the size of Britain.
Years of battles led to the elimination in 2019 of the territorial "caliphate" self-declared by the Islamic State, ending an unprecedented experiment in the jihadist state that saw a well-organized administration minting its own currency, producing school textbooks and raising taxes.
But while that entity collapsed in March in the remote village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria, the organization went underground and returned to well-perfected guerrilla tactics that continue to cause damage.
A recent Turkish invasion targeting Kurdish forces that had fought against the Islamic State in Baghdad has wreaked havoc in northeastern Syria, whose geopolitical map is being redesigned.
The SI has a very horizontal structure, analysts say, and the impact of a decapitation strike can be more symbolic than operational, leaving the group's global jihadist efficiency and mark as an insurgency largely intact.
Published on Dawn, November 1, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1514176/is-confirms-baghdadis-death-vows-revenge