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| Pemimpin ISIS, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, dalam foto yang tidak diketahui tanggal pengambilannya (CTC Sentinel via AP) |
Damascus - Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi is a religious scholar and former Iraqi soldier during Saddam Hussein's era. Quraishi led the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for two years before he blew himself up during a raid by US military forces at a house in Syria this week.
As reported by Reuters, Friday (4/2/2022), Quraishi, who is an Iraqi citizen and 45 years old, became an important leader for the Islamic State of Iraq, which is a splinter of Al-Qaeda - the forerunner of ISIS - after the US invasion toppled Saddam Hussein last year. 2003 ago.
Quraishi was appointed to lead ISIS after his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was also the founder of ISIS, was killed in a US military operation in Syria in 2019.
In contrast to Baghdadi, Quraishi led ISIS as a shadowy figure amid intense pressure from US-led coalition forces, Iraq and other militias after the radical group lost territory they previously controlled.
Qurashi is also known by the aliases Abdullah Amir Mohammed Saeed al-Mawla and Haji Abdullah Qardash.
US officials have called the Quraish the "driving force" behind the 2014 genocide against the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Quraish is also credited with overseeing ISIS's vast network from Africa to Afghanistan.
Quraishi is known to have been born in 1976 in Muhallabiya, a small town west of Mosul which is inhabited by the Turkmen minority in Iraq. He is reportedly the son of a cleric who leads Friday prayers at a local mosque.
Having studied Islamic studies at a university in Mosul, Quraishi is more skilled in religious guidelines and Islamic jurisprudence than ISIS security and military doctrine. But according to Iraqi security officials, Quraish gained experience by being a member of the jihadist group.
In 2008, US troops captured Quraishi in Mosul and held him in a US detention facility called Camp Bucca. This information is based on research by BBC correspondent Feras Kilani, who interviewed Quraishi and investigated ISIS leadership after Baghdadi's death.
Camp Bucca is known as a detention center that was once inhabited by prisoners of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq who established important connections with each other while in detention, including Baghdadi himself. Quraish was released a year later.
Kilani's research suggests that Quraishi then joined the jihadist insurgency against the US occupation of Iraq between 2003-2004, and eventually managed to rise through the ranks of ISIS.
In the past, according to Iraqi security officials, Quraish had served in the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein. Many insurgents took up arms against US troops after Washington's representatives in Iraq ordered the disbandment of the Iraqi military and blacklisted thousands of commanders linked to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
Iraqi security officials say Quraishi fled to the Syrian border when ISIS was repulsed in 2017, and has since been hiding in remote areas, constantly moving to avoid being detected and trying to revive ISIS.