The new leader of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group is the brother of former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died in 2019, was born in Iraq, joined the terrorism after the action of the United States that led to the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 and headed the shura, an advisory council and important instance of IS.
Initial information about the profile of Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, announced on Thursday as the new leader of the group, was provided to the Reuters news agency by two Iraqi security officials and a source close to Western security services. The three spoke on condition of anonymity.
According to reports, the real name of the new leader is Juma Awad al-Badri. The surname “al-Quraishi”, included in his nom de guerre, was also present in the names of his predecessors. The term is associated with families that declare themselves descendants of Muhammad, something essential for a man to be considered a “caliph”.
Badri assumes leadership of the group after Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi, his predecessor, detonated the explosive belt he was carrying in early February during a US operation in Syria. Hashimi has been in control of IS since 2019, following the death of Baghdadi, Bakr’s younger brother.
The little information available indicates that Badri is a radical who joined Salafi jihadist groups (which follow an ultra-conservative and internationalist Islamism) in 2003 and was known to always accompany Baghdadi as a personal companion and legal adviser.
He was also head of the shura, the council that guides IS strategy and decides the succession of the group’s leadership when a caliph is killed or captured. The audio recording through which the group announced the name of the new leader said that he had been appointed by the Quraishi himself as his successor before his death.
According to the information, he was hiding in Syria, but he had recently crossed the border into Iraq. Badri has two other brothers, one detained for years by the Iraqi security service. The other brother’s whereabouts are unknown, but he is also believed to be working alongside radical Islamic factions.
The new IS leader inherits control of significant financial resources, according to a December report by the United Nations monitoring team on the matter. The assessment calculated that the group’s reserves were between US$ 25 million and US$ 50 million (R$ 125 million to R$ 251 million), even though IS spends much more than it earns, according to the UN.
