Just a couple of days ago, the US army forces killed the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northern Syria. Now, the ISIS group stepped forward and announced their new leader and warned America: “Do not be happy.” The group also confirmed their former leader Baghdadi’s death.
An audio recording by them suggested that the Islamic State mourned the loss of their leader Mr. al-Baghdadi, who led the organization for nearly a decade. Also, its spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, was killed a day after Mr. al-Baghdadi. Muhajir was considered as a potential successor. President of the US Trump and Pentagon officials said al-Baghdadi had blown himself up with a suicide vest, also killing two children under 12 years, after he was caught in a dead-end tunnel during an American military raid in a northern Syrian village. Also, the next day al-Muhajir was killed in an airstrike.
The audio is the first word from the Islamic State since the attacks. It was a 7-minute 37-second recording where the group warned the US to not be happy over killing Baghdadi. “Do not be happy America, for the death of Sheikh al-Baghdadi, and do not forget the cups of death at his hands, may God accept him,” the announcement said. The recording also had accusations on the leadership of Trump. “Don’t you see how you became the laughingstock of the nations, and an old and crazy man controls your fate, whose opinion changes between morning and evening?”
Now, the audio also took a pledge allegiance to their new leader as a ritual and new leader ‘Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi’ is hardly known by anyone and nobody know anything about him. The group has not disclosed any biographical details to identify him. Daniele Raineri, a journalist and analyst who has been studying the Islamic State’s leadership structure for more than a decade said that ISIS leaders like Mr. al-Qurayshi may have had a completely different name last week and they keep changing names.
