The story so far: U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed during an American raid in northwestern Syria’s Idlib. Mr. Biden said the “horrible terrorist” blew himself up, along with others in the hideout, as the U.S. Special Forces were approaching in. The killing leaves a blow to the IS, which was trying to make a comeback in Iraq and Syria, where it was born almost eight years ago.
Who was Abu Ibrahim Qurayshi?
Born in Iraq in 1976, Qurayshi, who real name was Amir Muhammad Sa’id Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla, was, like several other IS leaders, an officer in Saddam Hussein’s military. He met Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the founder of the IS, in Camp Bucca, a U.S.-controlled prison in Iraq. Out of Camp Bucca, he joined the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the predecessor of the IS, in 2007, a year after the ISI’s notorious leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. airstrike. Within the IS ranks, Qurayshi rose quickly to become a close aide of Baghdadi. U.S. intelligence agencies say he played a key role in the genocide of the Iraq Yazidis — the killing of thousands of men and the enslavement of women that started in late 2013.
He was appointed ‘the new Caliph’ of the Islamic State by the Shura Council of the group a few days after Baghdadi was killed killed during a U.S. raid in Syria on October 27, 2019. By the time he took over the leadership, the IS had lost all its territories in Iraq and Syria and its ‘Caliphate’, which was established by Baghdadi across the borders of the two West Asian Arab countries, was destroyed. Qurayshi kept a low profile, unlike his predecessor. There were no audio or video messages from the ‘Caliph’ for his supporters. But the IS, under his leadership, continued to operate as a loose confederation of networks that have spread to many parts of Africa and Asia.
How did the U.S. carry out the attack?
About two dozen helicopter-borne commandos took part in the operation in Idlib, the last outpost of the Syrian civil war that’s held by jihadists associated with al-Qaeda and rebels backed by Turkey. President Biden said he sent the special forces to Idlib, instead of attacking the hideout with a missile, to minimise any civilian harm. According to reports in American press, the U.S. intelligence got information about Qurayshi’s hiding place months earlier, and the operation got the Presidential green signal on Tuesday morning, after detailed planning. U.S. gun ships took off from Kobane, a Syrian Kurdish town on the Turkish border in the northeast that’s controlled by the Kurdish militias, and flew all the way to the jihadist-controlled Idlib in the northwest.
The Syrian air space outside the northeast and east is practically controlled by Russia. But there is “a deconfliction arrangement” between the U.S. and Russia to avoid collusion when they carry out air strikes in the country. Details of the operation are still unclear. But according to reports in American media, the raid that began at 1 am local time, involved Apache helicopters, air strikes and drones. U.S. forces landed in helicopters in the compound and approached the multi-storey building. Qurayshi, who was in the third floor, detonated himself, like Baghdadi did in 2019, along with his family members, which Mr. Biden called “a final act of desperate cowardice.” At least 13 people were believed to have been killed.
Where does his death leave the IS?
The death of Qurayshi comes a few weeks after the IS carried out its biggest operation in Syria’s al-Hasakah since the battle of Baghouz in 2019 in which the jihadist group lost its last shred of territory. In Hasakah in Syrian Kurdistan, a prison holding thousands of IS militants came under attack on January 20. It was a coordinated assault – suicide bombers struck the prison with a truck bomb and a gun battle followed, while IS inmates inside the prison revolted against the guards. Almost at the same time, the IS killed scores of security officials in Iraq in another attack. U.S. intelligence officials said, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, that Qurayshi was personally involved in the raid on the Hasakah prison. Under his command, the IS had enhanced operations in North and West Africa and Afghanistan. The Islamic State-Khorasan, the Afghan branch of the group, stepped up attacks in Afghanistan ever since the Taliban returned to power. But in Iraq and Syria, where the IS had controlled big cities such as Raqqah and Mosul, they remained an underground insurgency. The Hasakah prison raid, aimed at freeing militants, a tactic that Baghdadi had used to replenish the IS fighter base, was the strongest signal of a comeback by the group.
The raid was a failure as hundreds of U.S. troops joined the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish militia backed by the U.S., to successfully push back the IS in Hasakah. Qurayshi’s killing is another setback for the jihadists at a time when they are desperately trying to revive themselves in their core. But at the same time, the vast conflict zones of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and North and West Africa means that organisations such as the IS and al-Qaeda would find a way to survive the occasional setbacks.
What’s next for the U.S.?
Mr. Biden has repeatedly referred to the SDF, the Syrian Kurdish militia, in his remarks from the White House. He also mentioned the Peshmerga, the militia of Iraqi Kurdistan, an American ally. The U.S. has some 900 troops in northeast Syria (after the troops reductions implemented by Donald Trump), which it quickly mobilised and deployed in Hasakah last month. The Hasakah operation and the Idlib raid suggest that Mr. Biden would stay course on Syria — continue the military presence in the country and retain or even deepen the existing counterterrorism cooperation with the Kurdish militias, despite the opposition from Turkey, a NATO ally.