ISIS Leader Killed in US-led Syria Raid: Profile of Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurayshi

As US special operations forces converged on his hideout on February 3, 2022, following months of extensive plans, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi detonated a personal explosive device that killed him and his family. (BBC News, 2022). US President Joseph R. Biden spoke from the White House Thursday morning to announce that the operation had taken "a major terrorist leader off the battlefield," adding that the US had chosen to use special operations forces instead of precision-guided munitions in the operation in order to try to minimize civilian casualties. (Starr, 2022). The ISIS chief’s suicide-by-explosive was described by President Biden as "a final act of cowardice". The Pentagon will conduct a more complete after-action investigation into the attack to further elucidate the circumstances.

Four civilians and five combatants were killed during the raid, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said during a briefing Thursday. However, The Syrian civil defence groups said 13 people were killed, including six children and four women. It remains unclear why there is such a wide discrepancy between the numbers provided by the Pentagon and the White Helmets. (Starr, 2022).

One of al-Qurayshi's deputies and his wife, both of whom had fired on US forces, were also killed in the raid. Kirby stated further that throughout the two-hour operation, US forces battled a small group of people who approached the location and were "deemed hostile," resulting in the deaths of two of them.

A US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter used by the operators suffered a maintenance issue and was ruled hazardous to fly during the operation. (Macias, 2022). The helicopter was abandoned and destroyed on the ground by mission personnel. According to Kirby, the decision to ditch the helicopter was made by the United States. Kirby also clarified that al-Qurayshi's body was left behind at the scene.

According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the death of al-Qurayshi "deals a catastrophic blow to ISIS" and reaffirms the US commitment to combating terrorist threats. Many researchers and intelligence personnel, on the other hand, have noted that decapitating terrorist leaders is hardly a silver bullet, especially for groups with worldwide influence. Even if this premise is accepted, the question of how successful decapitation operations can be and whether, under certain conditions, they are most likely to produce the best return on investment remains an open question. The vast majority of scholarly research on decapitation reveals that it is ineffectual at best and destructive at worst. (Ryan et al., 2012).

Profile: Knowing Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurayshi

The 45-year-old al-Qurayshi, an Iraqi, had been a key figure in ISIS's forerunner, the Islamic State of Iraq (an al-Qaeda affiliate), since shortly after the 2003 US-led invasion that deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. He became ISIS’s head, going by the alias of Abdullah Amir Mohammed Saeed al-Mawla and Hajji Abdullah Qardash, a vicious operative who mostly escaped the notice of Iraqi and US intelligence until he became ISIL's head.

Al-Qurayshi was born in Muhallabiya, a tiny village west of Mosul populated primarily by Iraq's Turkmen minority. He was the son of a devout religious preacher who used to lead Friday prayers in a nearby mosque. (Al Jazeera, 2022). He was said to be more capable of grasping issues of religious doctrine than security or military, as a student of Islamic Studies, but he had continually earned military experience through membership in armed groups, according to Iraqi security forces.

According to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), al-Qurayshi assisted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his predecessor who killed himself during a 2019 raid by US forces, in gaining control of Mosul in northern Iraq in 2014. Al-Qurayshi "quickly developed himself among the insurgency's senior leadership and was dubbed the "Professor" and the "Destroyer," as per the think tank. The report also alleges that he was known among ISIS members as a "brutal policymaker" who had been in charge of "eliminating those who resisted Baghdadi's regime."

What, then, is next for ISIS? The death of al-Qurayshi will be difficult, especially if his successor does not have the same notoriety like former jihadi heavyweights like Baghdadi and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. His death will hinder the group in the short term, but the organization will not be dismantled. Since they are operating in the shadows, there are no obvious successors as of the moment, but given their organizational bureaucracy, there is no doubt that a new leader will emerge promptly.

Sources:

Al Jazeera. (2022, February 4). Profile: Who was Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi? ISIL/ISIS News | Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/4/abu-ibrahim-al-qurayshi-who-was-isil-killed-in-us-raid

BBC News. (2022, February 4). Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi killed in Syria, US says. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-60246129

Macias, A. (2022, February 3). ISIS leader dies during U.S. counterterrorism raid in Syria, White House says. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/us-forces-kill-isis-leader-in-syria-white-house-says.html

POLITICO. (2022, February 3). Opinion | Biden Just Took Out ISIS’ Top Leader. What’s Next? https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/03/whats-next-for-isis-after-leader-death-00005455

Ryan, K., Gannon, A. J., Azizian, N., Brooks, H., & Allison, G. (2012). Targeting Top Terrorists: How Leadership Decapitation Contributes to Counterterrorism. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/targeting-top-terrorists-how-leadership-decapitation-contributes-counterterrorism

Starr, B. O. L. (2022, February 3). ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi killed in US-led Syria raid, Biden says. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/03/world/syria-us-special-forces-raid-intl-hnk/index.html