In a US military deployment in northern Syria, the possible successor to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed. The confirmed Donald Trump via Twitter: "Now he is dead!", He wrote. However, the US President did not mention the name of the killed or any other details.
Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's number one replacement has been terminated by American troops. Most likely would have taken the top spot - Now he is dead!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2019Kurdish militia YPG announced on Sunday that IS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhadschir had been killed. He was considered one of the most important figures in the jihadist militia "Islamic State" (IS). In the past, he had called supporters and sympathizers in the West in several audio messages to commit attacks. IS has not yet announced a successor to Al-Baghdadi.
Al-Baghdadi was tracked down after a year-long hunt in the night of Sunday in a hiding place in the northern Syrian province of Idlib. Trump had subsequently announced his death - Al-Baghdadi had escaped from the soldiers in a tunnel and have detonated an explosives vest there, said the US president.
The IS militia lost its last territory in Syria in March and has been weakened by a long series of defeats. Thousands of their followers are in captivity while the rest live underground (more on the background here).
Another possible successor to Baghdadi is the former Iraqi officer Abdallah Kardash, who was detained in 2004 with al-Baghdadi in the US military prison Bucca. A few months ago, in a statement by the IS propaganda body Amaq, he was named designated successor to al-Baghdadi. However, the Amaq statement is considered possibly fake. In 2017, several family members said Kardash was dead.