Ex-Saddam officer al-Qurayshi who was imprisoned alongside al-Baghdadi was once US INFORMANT
Last Update: 2022-02-04 00:00:00 - Source: Iraq News
ISIS leader known as The Professor who blew himself and his kids up rather than face justice: Ex-Saddam officer al-Qurayshi who was imprisoned alongside Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, eliminated his rivals and was once a US INFORMANT
Al-Qurayshi, also known as Abdullah Qardash, was nicknamed The Professor or The Destroyer because of his reputation as a brutal legislator
Blew himself up during a U.S. attack on a home in the Idlib province of Syria
Is known as a cruel but popular figure among the ISIS rank-and-file
Replaced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after al-Baghdadi blew himself up with a suicide vest during a U.S. raid in 2019
Al-Qurayshi was once known to U.S. officials as a cooperative informant after he was captured in 2007
In 2020, the U.S. doubled the bounty on the new ISIS leader's head to $10 million
By Morgan Phillips, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com and Chris Pleasance and Ap
Published: | Updated:
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ISIS' now-dead leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, otherwise known as 'The Professor,' had a complicated history, where he once served as a U.S. informant and more recently had a $10 million bounty on his head from Washington.
Al-Qurayshi, also known as Abdullah Qardash, was nicknamed The Professor or The Destroyer because of his reputation as a brutal legislator - is known as a cruel but popular figure among the ISIS rank-and-file.
He replaced Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after al-Baghdadi blew himself up with a suicide vest during a U.S. raid in 2019. Al-Qurayshi is believed to be a former officer in Saddam Hussein's military who forged an alliance with al-Baghdadi in prison before becoming his enforcer and chief policymaker.
Al-Qurayshi, also known as Abdullah Qardash, was nicknamed The Professor or The Destroyer because of his reputation as a brutal legislator
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Al-Qurayshi was once known to U.S. officials as a cooperative informant, who divulged details to American forces on the Islamic State in Iraq. He was captured in 2007 or 2008, and spent months in an American detention camp in Iraq.
Defense Department documents described as an at-times 'cooperative' informant who under interrogation revealed details on the group that he would go on to lead.
According to a statement by Amaq, ISIS's press agency, Baghdadi appointed Al-Qurayshi to run the group's day-to-day operations in August 2019, making him the heir-apparent after his former boss killed himself during the raid by US forces in Syria.
In 2020, the U.S. doubled the bounty on the new ISIS leader's head to $10 million. But al-Qurayshi maintained a low profile -he did not appear in public, and rarely released any audio recordings. His influence and day-to-day involvement in the group’s operations is not known, and he has no known successor.
Al-Qurayshi - also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari - was born in Tal Afar, a Sunni-majority town in Iraq, in 1976 - before joining the military while Saddam Hussein ruled the country.
Following the invasion of Iraq by the US in 2003 and President Bush's move to disband the country's military, he found himself locked in jail accused of having links to al-Qaeda.
Al-Qurayshi was known to U.S. officials as a cooperative informant, who divulged details to American forces on the Islamic State in Iraq
In 2020, the U.S. doubled the bounty on the new ISIS leader's head to $10 million, as they released this photo of him
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Languishing in a cell at Camp Bucca, al-Qurayshi formed a close bond with Baghdadi, who was then fomenting the extremist religious code that would provide the ideological grounding for the death cult that became ISIS.
After his release al-Qurashi served as a religious commissar and a general sharia judge for al-Qaeda, according to researchers at the S. Rajartnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
Al-Qurayshi was tasked with establishing an institute for training judges and clergymen in the campus of al-Imam al-Adham College in Mosul, likely in part where 'The Professor' nickname came from.
When ISIS emerged as a splinter group from Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch he changed allegiances, where he became Baghdadi's enforcer.
Working close to Baghdadi,he was responsible for eliminating anyone who disagreed with his style of leadership, which is where he earned his other nickname, 'The Destroyer'.
From there he became the group's chief policymaker and legislator, known for enforcing its strict brand of Islam and Sharia Law punishments.
Caliphate leader: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi detonated his own suicide vest during the targeted raid on his lair in Syria's Idlib province and killed three of his children in the blast. He is shown in a still from a video released in April, having not been seen since he spoke at the Grand Mosque in Mosul in 2014
A poster advertising a $10 million U.S. reward for information about al Qurayshi is pictured above
He is thought to have personally welcomed Baghdadi into Mosul in 2014 after ISIS took the city - announcing their presence as the world's foremost terror group.
It was from the minaret of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul that Baghdadi gave a speech announcing the formation of ISIS's so-called Caliphate.
In capturing Mosul, ISIS had killed thousands of Yazidi residents, and enslaved Yazidi women under the guise of enforcing Sharia law.
There were disagreements among ISIS leadership about enslaving the Yazidi women, but it was al-Qurayshi led the organization's more extremist leaders in insisting on it, according to News Lines Magazine.
President Joe Biden said al-Qurayshi was directly responsible for the prison strike, as well as the mass killings of the Yazidi people in Iraq in 2014.
'He was responsible for the recent brutal attack on a prison in northeast Syria ... He was the driving force behind the genocide of the Yazidi people,' Biden said Thursday. 'We all remember the gut-wrenching stories, mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages, thousands of women and young girls sold into slavery, rape used as a weapon of war.'
On August 7, 2019 Amaq announced that al-Qurayshi had taken over day-to-day running of the terror group, while Baghdadi concentrated on drumming up religious fervour in the group's aims.
The selection of al-Qurayshi drummed up debate within ISIS, even reaching its members in prison, over whether he was of Turkmen or Arab origin. The 'caliph' of ISIS must be a descendant of the prophet Mohammed, therefore an Arab.
People inspect the destroyed house where the ISIS leader was staying
An aerial view of wreckages around the site after an operation carried out by US forces targeting a high ranking jihadist in northern Syria last night
A Syrian man takes a picture of a blood soaked kitchen at the scene of a US anti-terror raid in Atmeh, Idlib
Several pictured that have emerged from the scene show considerable damage to the outside of the house, with blood spattering the walls inside
Al-Qurayshi was keen to prove his Arab origin. Until 2020, U.S. and Iraqi officials believed the head of ISIS was a Turkman, which they weaponized to undermine his claim to leadership. Late reports confirmed his Arab descent.
Al-Qurayshi spent his last days in Idlib province, an area held by insurgent groups hostile to IS.
Al-Qurayshi set off a bomb that killed himself as well as members of this family, the White House said.
Thirteen were killed, including six children and four women during the mission, which involved 24 Special Operations commandos backed by attack jets, Reaper drones and helicopter gunships.
The raid targeted a large house in Atmeh in the Idlib region of Syria where the ISIS leader was hiding. The two-story house was left with its top floor shattered and blood spattered inside. A journalist on assignment for The Associated Press and several residents noted that they saw body parts scattered near the site.
Al-Arabiya TV said three of the four women who were killed in the raid might have been the wives of the extremist leader. It is common for members of extremists group to be married to up to four women, which is allowed under Muslim tradition.