The identity of the next ISIS leader may be kept secret, experts say
Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi died during a U.S. special forces raid on Thursday, dealing a setback to the terrorist group at the same time it's been trying to stage a comeback.
"This is a major blow to ISIS and an important psychological victory for the U.S. team,"James Franklin Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, told NBC News.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Al-Qurayshi's successor has not been identified, and it might stay that way, with ISIS keeping the name secret to protect him. "A lot of the leadership has been killed in the last few years," Seth G. Jones, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told NBC News. "Because of that, they're being very careful."
Al-Qurayshi was from a region of Iraq where ethnic Turkmen make up the majority, and experts told NBC News they believe ISIS's next leader will also be Iraqi. Dr. Daniel Milton, director of research at the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point, told NBC News he thinks this person will be familiar with "Islamic jurisprudence" and have experience in the battlefield. ISIS has been planning for this moment, Jeffrey said, adding, "The shelf-life of an ISIS leader of late is about three years, and so they are prepared for that eventuality."
-
Why is the Pentagon taking over the military’s independent newspaper?Today’s Big Question Stars and Stripes is published by the Defense Department but is editorially independent
-
How Mars influences Earth’s climateThe explainer A pull in the right direction
-
‘The science is clear’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
Maduro pleads not guilty in first US court hearingSpeed Read Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy
-
Iran’s government rocked by protestsSpeed Read The death toll from protests sparked by the collapse of Iran’s currency has reached at least 19
-
Israel approves new West Bank settlementsSpeed Read The ‘Israeli onslaught has all but vanquished a free Palestinian existence in the West Bank’
-
US offers Ukraine NATO-like security pact, with caveatsSpeed Read The Trump administration has offered Ukraine security guarantees similar to those it would receive from NATO
-
Hong Kong court convicts democracy advocate LaiSpeed Read Former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was convicted in a landmark national security trial
