According to intelligence services in the West, Muhammad al-Salibi is the successor to ISIS founder
About three months after the assassination of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the identity of his successor: Muhammad Abdul Rahman al-Mawili al-Salibi was revealed on Monday. Sources at two intelligence services in the West have confirmed to the British newspaper Guardian the identity of Al Baghdadi's successor.
Al-Salibi is one of the founders of ISIS, and according to various reports, he was, among other things, responsible for enslaving the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, many of whose wives became sex slaves of ISIS leaders and activists. In addition, he is considered one of the top commanders for ISIS's international terrorist activities, outside the borders of the Islamic State.
According to the Guardian, al-Salibi was appointed to the post just hours after al-Baghdadi's assassination. ISIS's first name, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashmi, was apparently a nickname or intended to mislead the intelligence services in the West, who did not know it.
According to information provided to intelligence agencies in the West by agents operating inside ISIS, al-Salibi is considered an extreme conservative characterized by unqualified loyalty to the terrorist organization. His ancestry is from the Turkmen minority family in Iraq, from the town of Tel el-Afr, and he is one of the few in the senior leadership of ISIS who is not ethnically Arab.
Salibi is considered an Islamic scholar and enjoys the status of one of the leading halakhic rulers in ISIS. He holds a degree in Sharia law from the University of Mosul, and has, among other things, provided the terrorist organization with the halakhic rulings that allowed for genocide and exile in the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq.
In 2004, he was arrested by the Americans and imprisoned in a prison in southern Iraq, where he apparently met al-Baghdadi. The two were released at one point and began terrorist activities. Probably al-Salibi has at least one son, but not much is known about his personal life. Even before Al-Baghdadi's assassination, the US State Department placed a $ 5 million prize on Al-Salibi's head, along with two other senior ISIS officials.