By Our Correspondent/Agencies
WASHINGTON/BAGDAD: Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the elusive leader of the dreaded Islamic State (IS) terror group, died like a coward, “whimpering and crying” in a US raid, American President Donald Trump said, adding that an “innocent man, woman or child” would never be harmed again.
Baghdadi, who was in his late 40s and carried a bounty of at least $25 million, was one of the most wanted terrorists in the world. He presided over the brutal ‘Caliphate’ that he had set up in Syria and Iraq enforcing a fundamentalist code and killing thousands.
His death is the the most significant announcement since former President Barack Obama revealed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed by US Navy Seals in a dramatic late night address in May 2011.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed Caliph of the Islamic Caliphate that he founded, a man, who despite making headlines in The Washington Post normalising him, was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands and the misery of tens of millions, was allegedly killed in a raid conducted by the US military in northwest Syria.
The Islamic State (IS) at one time controlled huge swathes of Iraq and Syria, dominated the oil trade and enslaved and raped millions of women as well as precipitated a refugee crisis in Europe. But like so many other terrorist leaders such as Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, Baghdadi was in essence a coward.
His “thought” leadership never translated into actual on-ground leadership although his perversion of Islamic teachings impacted the lives of millions. He died, as US President Donald Trump, remarked, “whimpering, like a dog”, which to be honest was unfair to our canine friends. His brutality spared none. Scared of being killed by American special forces or worse still, captured alive, he blew himself up with a suicide vest, killing at least three terrified children whom he was using as human shields.
If it was not Baghdadi and IS, it would have been someone or something else that would have risen from the ashes of post-occupation Iraq. The war on Saddam Hussein was fought on very tenuous legal grounds by the US and Great Britain and the coalition was desperate to “clean up” Iraq from the influence of Saddam’s Ba’ath Party and as a result gutted it. While the Americans in particular had played an immense role in restructuring post World War-II Germany and Japan, even the most militaristic of American Generals, Douglas MacArthur, realised the importance of state continuity in Japan, which is why the Japanese monarchy survived the war. The war in Iraq was fought without any post-liberation plan or understanding of the deep sectarian issues in the region. It had not factored in how Iran and Turkey would fiddle around. A US-imposed government was bound to fail and it did. It was unable to control much of Iraq outside Baghdad and in a country awash with guns and a history of violence, with continuous wars from 1980 onwards as well as thousands of unemployed soldiers and officers, the arrival of IS on the scene became a matter of when and not if.
Nobody expected the sheer brutality that was to follow, particularly against the Yazidis, but the killing of Baghdadi was just the US trying to clear up some of the mess it had created as Donald Trump attempts to leave the area. However, while Baghdadi’s death might have killed the IS until leaders in the region and major global powers do nothing to stabilise the situation, another Baghdadi might rise. And given the way that wannabe-dictator, Recip Tayyep Erdogan of Turkey, is acting right now, the next Baghdadi is only months away.
