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Al Mawla: What will the new ISIS leader do?

Following the killing of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, ISIS was leaderless for a while. No longer. Mawla the ‘Destroyer’ has now assumed the helm. What is in store for ISIS going forward?

Following the successful killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the terrorist organisation was leaderless for a while. No longer. A guy called Mawla the ‘Destroyer’ has now assumed the helm. What is in store for ISIS going forward?

With monikers as divergent as the “Professor” and the “Destroyer”, ISIS’s new head has a reputation for brutality, but otherwise remains largely an enigma. Amir Mohammed Said Abd Al Rahman Al Mawla replaced Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi after his death in a raid by US special forces last October. Al Mawla was initially presented to the world by ISIS as Abu Ibrahim Al Hashimi Al Qurashi – a man about whom America and Iraq had little intelligence.

Timestamps

00:00:00 Eliminating a terrorist leader is not always effective
00:01:25 Al Mawla ‘the Destroyer’
00:02:05 Al Mawla’s background
00:03:05 Better the devil you know than the one you don’t
00:03:52 The new guy is brutal
00:05:10 ISIS is not gone
00:06:34 What do we do with Al Mawla?
00:07:37 Drone strikes
00:08:33 Contact Phil Gurski

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By Phil Gurski

Phil Gurski is the President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting Ltd. Phil is a 32-year veteran of CSE and CSIS and the author of six books on terrorism.

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