Page 8 - AT

A8 WORLD NEWS
Monday 28 october 2019

Al-Baghdadi's death a blow, but IS has survived other losses

By JOSEPH KRAUSS But he was an imposing fig-
Associated Press urehead, and his ability to
BEIRUT (AP) — The death elude the world's most pow-
of Islamic State leader Abu erful intelligence services
Bakr al-Baghdadi marks the for so many years added to
demise of one of the most his mystique among his fol-
brutally effective jihadist lowers. He proved to be a
leaders of modern times — highly effective leader and
a man who commanded will be hard to replace.
tens of thousands of fight- Al-Baghdadi never publicly
ers from around the world, designated a successor,
carved out a territorial ca- and many of his top depu-
liphate in the Middle East ties have been killed. His
and refined a horrific ideol- death could spark infight-
ogy that survives him. ing among prospective
U.S. President Donald successors, potentially fur-
Trump announced Sunday ther weakening the group.
that al-Baghdadi died in ___
a U.S. raid in Syria after he IS THIS THE END OF THE IS-
was chased into a tunnel LAMIC STATE?
with three of his children The Islamic State group
and set off a vest of explo- in its various forms has sur-
sives. IS lost its last foothold vived the death of several
of territory earlier this year leaders and senior com-
to U.S.-backed Kurdish-led manders. It has been able
forces, but al-Baghdadi This file image made from video posted on a militant website April 29, 2019, purports to show the to replenish its ranks by at-
had continued to exhort leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, being interviewed by his group's Al- tracting Sunni Muslims in
remnants of the group to Furqan media outlet. the Middle East who feel
carry out attacks. Associated Press oppressed by their govern-
His death is a major blow, ments, as well as foreigners
but the extremist group has Syria, exploiting the chaos tos on social media. the 2015 shootings and sui- attracted by the group's
survived the loss of previ- unleashed by that coun- ___ cide bombings in Paris that austere vision of Islam, its ul-
ous leaders and military try's 2011 uprising and civil WAS HE A THREAT TO OTHER killed 130 people. It also tra-violent tactics, or both.
setbacks going back to the war. In the summer of 2014, COUNTRIES? claimed this year's Easter It still boasts powerful affili-
aftermath of the 2003 U.S.- his fighters swept across Al-Baghdadi repeatedly suicide bombings in Sri Lan- ates in other countries, and
led invasion of Iraq. eastern Syria and northern urged his followers to at- ka that killed 269 people. remnants of the original
A look at al-Baghdadi's and western Iraq, eventu- tack a list of enemies that The extremist group at- group continue to carry out
death and what it means ally carving out a self-styled came to include much of tracted tens of thousands sporadic attacks in both
going forward: "caliphate" in a third of the world, including the of foreigners to whom it Syria and Iraq.
WHO WAS AL-BAGHDADI? both countries. In early July, United States and other provided advanced mili- Perhaps even more wor-
Born Ibrahim Awwad Ibra- al-Baghdadi made his first Western countries, Shiite tary training, and spawned rying are the tens of thou-
him Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai public appearance, deliv- Muslims whom he deemed powerful affiliates in Egypt, sands of IS fighters and
in 1971 in Samarra, Iraq, ering a sermon in a centu- apostates, and even de- Libya, Afghanistan and supporters detained across
he adopted the nom de ries-old mosque in the Iraqi vout Sunni Muslims who re- elsewhere that continue to the Middle East, including
guerre al-Baghdadi and city of Mosul and declaring jected his group's ideology. carry out attacks. those held by Kurdish fight-
joined the Sunni insurgen- himself caliph, or leader of Unlike Osama bin Laden ___ ers in eastern Syria. The U.S.
cy against U.S. forces after the world's Muslims. and other jihadists who WHAT EFFECT WILL HIS decision this month to pull
the 2003 invasion. He was Under his leadership, the strove to carry out 9/11-style DEATH HAVE? out of Syria and abandon
detained by U.S. troops in group carried out a wave attacks that would capture As the world's most-wanted its former allies to a Turkish
February 2004 and spent 10 of atrocities, including the world attention, al-Bagh- terrorist with a $25 million invasion allowed hundreds
months in the Camp Bucca enslavement and rape of dadi exhorted followers to U.S. bounty on his head, of IS supporters to escape
prison in southern Iraq. thousands of women from do whatever they could al-Baghdadi's ability to run and raised concerns about
He eventually assumed Iraq's Yazidi minority. They with the weapons they had the day-to-day affairs of the security of other facili-
control of the Islamic State massacred captives, be- at hand. His group claimed IS was probably very lim- ties. It's possible that a fu-
of Iraq, an al-Qaida linked headed journalists and aid scores of attacks world- ited. He would have had to ture IS leader is wearing a
group founded by Abu workers, and threw indi- wide, including so-called move among various safe prison jumpsuit, quietly re-
Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jorda- viduals believed to be gay lone wolf attacks with no houses with a small group cruiting supporters within
nian militant killed in a U.S. from the rooftops of build- direct connection to the of loyalists and avoid us- concrete walls lined with
airstrike in Iraq in 2006. Un- ings. They gleefully broad- group. ing electronic communica- barbed wire and plotting
der al-Baghdadi, the group cast the killings with slickly But IS also directly orches- tions that could be tracked his next move — just as al-
expanded into neighboring produced videos and pho- trated attacks, including by intelligence agencies. Baghdadi once did.q