The Islamic State (IS) Terrorist Group Has A New Leader

 



The Islamic State (IS) terror group has announced that Shaykh Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is its new leader. He succeeds Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi who was killed in a raid on 3rd February 2022 by US Special Forces in the town of Atmeh, Syria. The announcement was made by the newly appointed IS spokesman, Abu Omar al-Muhajir who replaced the previous spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurashi who was also killed in the same raid as Abu Ibrahim. It came via a recording released by IS audio house Al Furqan. The audio has been released on various social media platforms such as Telegram and Rocket Chat.

The delay in the announcement of the new IS Caliph could be attributed to the fact the IS Central in Syria has probably had to reorganize itself after the death of Abu Ibrahim. Based on the audio release, it is understood that new IS leader Abu Hasan had been chosen by its previous leader Abu Ibrahim to be his successor. This highlights how IS already has a succession plan in place should any leader eliminated. The audio called for IS supporters worldwide to pledge allegiance to the new Caliph. IS also called for a continued effort to help weak Muslims and efforts at freeing IS prisoners of war, as evidenced by the recent Ghuweiran prison break in January 2022.

IS in Pakistan and some members of IS East Asia in the Philippines have already pledged their bayah to him. As far as East Asia is concerned, there has been no reaction from IS in Indonesia thus far but reactions are expected in the near future.





Figure 1: IS Members in Philippines pledging allegiance to the new Caliph

While the identity of the new Caliph has not been revealed officially by IS, the new man is believed to be Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai. Of Iraqi nationality, Sumaidai was formerly a member of Iraqi jihadist group Ansar al-Islam. He joined IS in 2013 and was part of the close circle of former IS Caliphs, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi. He was a well-known preacher and was alleged to have mentored many senior members of IS. He himself was believed to have been elected as IS’ Chief Judge in 2014. Sumaidai fits the bill in terms of his credentials for IS’ top position as he is a descendant of the Prophet, has strong theological credentials and is one of the most senior IS leaders around.

                                         

Figure 2: Taken from a 2019 meeting with al-Baghdadi. The new leader could be either one of them

While it might be too early to tell much about the new leader’s influence, the security forces globally would need to be wary of IS as it might conduct attacks globally on the command of IS Central in a show of force and to prove that IS is still lethal and that the new leader Sumaidai is capable of commanding attacks. He is known to have a large following owing to the fact that he was a senior teacher and preacher who had mentored many IS members and this might possibly have an impact at galvanizing and consolidating support for IS in Syria which has suffered losses over the past years since the death of al-Baghdadi. It now remains to be seen how IS affiliates around the world react and whether the new leader decides to take a quietist approach by staying out of the limelight like his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim or whether he decides to be more proactive and charismatic like al-Baghdadi.

 

 

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