The head of the Islamic State group the U.S. declared dead in a special forces raid on Thursday was dubbed “The Destroyer” and presided over the massacre of Yazidis before assuming leadership.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, also known as Amir Mohammed Said Abd al-Rahman al-Mawla, died two years ago after founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi detonated himself in a US special forces raid in October 2019 Take over the jihadist network.

Considered a low-key but brutal operator, Qurashi had largely been flying under the radar of Iraqi and U.S. intelligence until then.

He took over as ISIS was weakened by years of U.S.-led attacks and lost its self-proclaimed “caliphate” in Syria and northern Iraq.

The U.S. State Department offered him a $10 million reward and placed him on a list of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

Born in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar and believed to be in his 40s, his ascent through the ranks of the extremist group is rare for a non-Arab born to a Turkmen family.

According to the Counter-Extremism Project (CEP), serving in the Iraqi army of the late dictator Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, Quurahi joined after Hussein was captured by US troops in 2003 the ranks of Al Qaeda. ) think tank.

In 2004, he was detained by U.S. forces at the infamous Camp Buka prison in southern Iraq, where Baghdadi met with many future Islamic State figures.

‘Cruel policy makers’

After the pair’s release, Qurashi stayed with al-Baghdadi, who took over al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch in 2010 before defecting to create the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), later the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

In 2014, Qurashi helped al-Baghdadi take control of the northern city of Mosul, the CEP said.

The think tank said Qurashi “quickly established himself in the upper echelons of the insurgent group and was nicknamed ‘The Professor’ and ‘The Destroyer’”.

He was well-respected among IS members as a “brutal policymaker” and was responsible for “eliminating those who opposed Baghdadi’s leadership,” the report said.

Jean-Pierre Filius, a jihad analyst at Sciences Po, said he is probably best known for “playing a major role in the jihadist movement that purged the Yazidi minority [in Iraq] through massacres, deportations and sexual slavery” .

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that Qurashi detonated himself after U.S. special forces raided his Syrian hideout in an “extremely challenging” nighttime helicopter raid, eliminating the global “terrorism threat” “.

Former UN official and CEP director Hans-Jakob Schindler called his death a “major setback” for ISIS to lose a second leader, but doubted it would be a game changer.

ISIS is thought to be preparing for the killing of its leader and planning who will take over.

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