ISIL confirms death of leader al-Baghdadi, names new chief
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) armed group has confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announcing Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as its new chief.
Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, ISIL‘s new spokesman, made the announcement on Thursday in an audio statement distributed by the group’s media arm, Al Furqan.
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He also confirmed the death of his predecessor, Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir.
The statement called on the group’s followers to pledge allegiance to the new leader, whose title indicates that he claims descent from the tribe of Prophet Muhammad.
It also addressed the United States, saying: “Don’t rejoice.”
Al-Baghdadi’s death was first announced by US President Donald Trump on Sunday, following a night-time raid by US special forces in Barisha, a village in Syria‘s northwestern province of Idlib.
Trump said the ISIL chief detonated a suicide vest after running into a dead-end tunnel beneath a compound.
Al-Muhajir was killed in a joint US operation with Kurdish forces in northern Syrian city of Jarablus hours after al-Baghdadi’s death.
ISIL’s rise and fall
Under al-Baghdadi’s command, ISIL became one of the most brutal armed groups in modern history and, at its peak, its self-declared caliphate covered territory across Iraq and Syria roughly equivalent to the size of the United Kingdom.
Harnessing the internet and encouraging followers from different parts of the world to join them, ISIL fighters carried out mass killings, beheadings and rape campaigns in Iraq and Syria, and inspired attacks beyond the Middle East.
In the following years, a series of offensives gradually stripped the group of its territory, with its fighters losing their final scrap of land in Syria in March this year.
Analysts say al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi will be the leader of a frayed organisation that has been reduced to scattered sleeper cells.