ISIS Leader Dies During US Attack, Head Price is IDR 143 Billion and Nicknamed “Destroyer”

AMMAN, KOMPAS.com – The leader of ISIS who died by blowing himself up when attacked by special forces United States (US) on Thursday (3/2/2022) nicknamed “Destroyer” or “Destroyer”.

The man named Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi had also led the Yazidi massacre before taking over.

Qurashi, also known as Amir Mohammed Said Abd Al-Rahman Al-Mawla, took over the leadership of ISIS two years ago after its founder, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, blew himself up in a US special forces raid in October 2019.

Also read: ISIS leader commits suicide when attacked by US forces

Quoted from AFP, Qurashi is considered as ISIS leader which is not often seen but brutal. He was rarely detected by Iraqi and US intelligence radar until he died.

Qurashi became the leader of ISIS as the group weakened by years of US-led attacks, and the loss of self-proclaimed power in Syria and northern Iraq.

The US State Department pegged a value of 10 million US dollars (Rp 143.77 billion) for his head, and placed him on the “Special Global Terrorist” list.

Profile of ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi

Born in the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar and thought to be in his mid-40s, Qurashi’s rise to the ranks of the extremist group is rare for non-Arabs, as he was born into a Turkmen family.

Qurashi served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein, the late dictator toppled by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Qurashi later joined Al-Qaeda after Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces in 2003, according to the agency think-tank Counter Extremism Project (CEP).

In 2004, he was detained by US forces in the infamous Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, where Baghdadi and a number of would-be ISIS figures later met.

After the two men were released, Qurashi remained by Baghdadi’s side when he took control of Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi branch in 2010, then defected to founding ISI in Iraq (ISI) and then ISIS in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Then in 2014 Qurashi helped Baghdadi take control of the northern city of Mosul, CEP said.

Also read: Profile of Al-Quraishi, the Leader of ISIS who blew himself up when attacked by US forces

The think tank said Qurashi “quickly established himself among the senior ranks and was dubbed the ‘Professor’ as well as the ‘Destroyer’.”

He is highly respected among ISIS members as a “brutal policymaker” and responsible for “killing those who oppose Baghdadi’s leadership”, he said.

Lead the Yazidi massacre

Qurashi is perhaps best known for playing a major role in the massacre of the (Iraq) Yazidi minority which was accompanied by expulsion and sexual slavery,” said Jean-Pierre Filiu, an analyst at the University of Sciences Po Paris.

On Thursday (3/2/2022), US President Joe Biden said that the global terrorist threat was removed when Qurashi blew himself up after US special forces stormed his Syrian hideout in a helicopter strike at night.

Hans-Jakob Schindler, former UN official and director of CEP, said: ISIS leader killed it represents a major setback for the group in terms of losing a second lead, but not sure to be a changer.

ISIS is thought to be already preparing who will take over if its leaders are killed.

Also read: The History of the Iraq vs America War: The Beginning of the Invasion, the Death of Saddam Hussein, to the Battle Against ISIS

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