Prior to taking over the leadership of the terrorist organization, after the assassination of his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in late 2019, he had overseen the massacre of the Yazidi Kurdish minority in Iraq.
The so-called "teacher" or "destroyer", the leader of the Islamic State who was killed in an operation by US special forces, was relatively unknown but managed to continue the same strategy and keep active the organization he had headed for the last two years.
Amir Mohammed Saeed Abdel Rahman al-Maula, a jihadist with many pseudonyms calling himself "Emir" Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraisi, was killed in the operation, according to US President Joe Biden. The nickname "Quraisi" indicates that it originated directly from the Prophet Muhammad. However, he also used the names Abdullah Amir Mohammed Saeed Al Maula and Haji Abdullah Kardash.
Prior to taking over the leadership of the terrorist organization, after the assassination of his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in late 2019, he had overseen the massacre of the Yazidi Kurdish minority in Iraq.
Al-Hashimi al-Quraishi was probably born in 1976 and was of Turkmen descent. His father preached every Friday at the local mosque. His rise to the leadership of the IK seemed unlikely, given that the leadership of the organization was dominated only by people of Arab descent. The former Saddam Hussein army officer studied at Mosul University of Islamic Sciences and joined Al Qaeda after the US-led invasion of Iraq and the capture of Saddam in 2003, according to the US-based Counter Extremism Project (CEP).
He was imprisoned in 2004 in the US jail at Bouka Camp (southern Iraq), which is considered the "nursery" of jihadism in the Levant. There he met Baghdadi. For unknown reasons, he was released and sided with his former inmate. In 2010, al-Baghdadi took over the reins of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda and later established the Islamic State in Iraq and then the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Daesh, in Arabic).
He has never appeared in public
According to the CEP, Maula quickly rose to the top of the ranks, calling him a "teacher" and a "destroyer" while gaining a reputation as "violent", mainly by killing "Emir" Baghdadi's opponents in the IK.
In his hometown of Tal Afar, 70 kilometers west of Mosul, explosive workshops and attack plans have proliferated. "Abu Omar the Turkmen played a 'central role in the campaign to exterminate the Yazidi minority, where thousands of people were slaughtered and expelled and women were enslaved to sex,'" Jean-Pierre Filiou, a professor at Sciences-Po, said in 2020. of Paris and specialist in jihadist organizations.
As head of the organization, without ever appearing in public, he tried to regenerate it, despite the losses of the territories under the control of the IK in the period 2014-19, when he established his supposed "caliphate" in areas of Syria and Iraq.
"The United States has reacted with fist and precision to the unacceptable, according to Washington, provocation of the recent bloodbath in Hasaka prison," Filiou told AFP. He referred to the jihadist attack in January on a prison in northeastern Syria, where thousands of like-minded people were being held. "Maula was a real operational leader and his assassination could, at least temporarily, prevent the jihadist organization from gaining strength," he added.
Major threat to the Taliban
Under his leadership, the Islamic State was strengthened in Khorasan (ie, Afghanistan) before the Taliban came to power, said Damian Ferre, director of Jihad Analytics, a company that specializes in risk analysis. posed by the jihadists for the world and cybersecurity. Since then, the Islamic State in Khorasan has become the main threat to the Taliban, as it even managed to hit Kabul airport during the withdrawal of US forces in August 2021 and poses a constant threat to Kabul's Islamist rulers.
Many researchers also point to the increased activity of the ISIS in the Chad region - where some Boko Haram fighters have joined its ranks - as well as in Central Africa.
Analysts estimate that the IK is already preparing for the succession to its leadership. So far, however, there is no information available on who could take over the reins, in place of Maula. Like Al Qaeda, the IK has always been able to overcome the deaths of its leaders and continue its activities.
"It's obviously a major blow to the IC," explained Hans-Jacob Schindler, a former United Nations expert and current director of the CEP. "Of course, they have to find a new leader and to mention a name at this stage would be just speculation. But it would be wrong to believe that everything is over, that everything will go better, after his extermination and taking into account the "There have been few attacks in Europe and the United States," he added.
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