ISIS Leader Is Jihad's 'Rising Star'
Updated: 8:49am UK, Thursday 12 June 2014
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) controls large parts of eastern Syria and western Iraq.
But despite his power - and a $10m (£5.9m) US reward for information leading to his capture - little is known about a man who for his own survival has shunned the spotlight.
Fighters from ISIS and its rivals have praised Baghdadi as a strategist driven by an unbending determination to fight for and establish a hardline Islamic state.
He has succeeded in exploiting turmoil in Syria and Iraq's weak central authority after the US military withdrawal to carve out his powerbase.
He has also proved ruthless in eliminating opponents to further his ambition of creating an Islamist state.
According to the US reward notice, which depicts a round-faced, brown-eyed man with closely cropped beard and short dark hair, Baghdadi was born in the Iraqi town of Samarra in 1971.
He is said to be the only prominent al Qaeda leader not to pledge allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri after Osama bin Laden's death three years ago.
He split with Zawahri after falling out with al Qaeda's Nusra Front in Syria, whose leader Abu Mohammad al Golani rejected an edict to merge his forces under Baghdadi's command.
While Baghdadi's supporters believe an Islamic state would revive the glories of Islam, they say Zawahiri feared that by drawing jihadi fighters together in one place it would make it easier for the West to defeat them.
His fighters counter that Baghdadi has plenty of hidden surprises for his enemies.
"He has capabilities that he keeps secret until the right time," one ISIS supporter said.
Ignoring Zawahiri's calls to leave Syria to the Nusra Front, Baghdadi expanded operations across northern and eastern Syria in 2012 and 2013, sometimes battling Bashar al Assad's forces but more often pushing out other rebel fighters.
Baghdadi's fighters now control the city of Raqqa - Syria's only provincial capital completely beyond Assad's control - and have imposed strict Islamic law.
In neighbouring Deir al-Zor province ISIS has waged a six-week offensive against rival rebels in which 600 fighters have been killed, seizing oilfields and towns on the northeast bank of the Euphrates, 60 miles (100 km) from the Iraqi border.
There is also video evidence of ISIS in the Syrian town of Azaz, with territory they controlled marked by graffiti on the walls and a flying flag.
Video also appeared on a social media website in January purported to show the northern Syrian town of Manbij after it was captured from rival insurgents by fighters from ISIS.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
IS Leader's Top Aide 'Killed In Iraq Airstrike'
Dengan url
http://badutjayus.blogspot.com/2014/09/is-leaders-top-aide-killed-in-iraq.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
IS Leader's Top Aide 'Killed In Iraq Airstrike'
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
IS Leader's Top Aide 'Killed In Iraq Airstrike'
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar