The so called proclaimed Caliph Baghdadi : - the ISIL leader is touted as a battlefield commander and tactician, a crucial distinction compared with Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. For the last 10 years or more, (Zawahiri) has been holed up in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area and hasnt really done very much more than issue a few statements and videos, said Richard Barrett, a former counter-terrorism chief at MI6, Britains foreign intelligence service. Whereas Baghdadi has done an amazing amount -- he has captured cities, he has mobilised huge amounts of people, he is killing ruthlessly throughout Iraq and Syria. If you were a guy who wanted action, you would go with Baghdadi, Barrett told AFP. Baghdadi apparently joined the insurgency that erupted in Iraq soon after the 2003 US-led invasion. In October 2005, American forces said they believed they had killed Abu Dua, one of Baghdadis known aliases, in a strike on the Iraq-Syria border. But that appears to have been incorrect, as he took the reins of what was then known as the Islamic State of Iraq, or ISI, in May 2010 after two of its chiefs were killed in a US-Iraqi raid. Since then, details about him have slowly trickled out. In October 2011, the US Treasury designated him as a terrorist in a notice that said he was born in the Iraqi city of Samarra in 1971. And earlier this year, Iraq released a picture they said was of Baghdadi, the first from an official source, depicting a balding, bearded man in a suit and tie. At the time Baghdadi took over, his group appeared to be on the ropes, after the surge of US forces combined with the shifting allegiances of Sunni tribesmen to deal him a blow. But the group has bounced back, expanding into Syria in 2013. Baghdadi sought to merge with Al-Nusra, which rejected the deal, and the two groups have operated separately since. Zawahiri has urged ISIL to focus on Iraq and leave Syria to Al-Nusra, but Baghdadi and his fighters have openly defied the Al-Qaeda chief and, indeed, have fought other Islamists groups though those fighting Assad.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 05:19:16 +0000
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