Baghdadi suicide

Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi is dead. The head of the terrorist group, Daesh, apparently killed himself using a suicide vest to avoid capture by US forces and facing justice for his crimes against the people of Iraq, Syria, and other countries. Although this is not the first time that Baghdadi has been declared dead, it is the first time senior US and European officials have come out and said it on record.

US President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that Baghdadi was positively identified by DNA tests 15 minutes after he died. Baghdadi also apparently killed three of his own children in the escape tunnel he was using. Trump said no US soldiers died in the operation, and the only American casualty was an injured military dog. He added that a large number of Baghdadi’s “fighters and companions” were killed with him.

US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that removing Daesh’s head will have a significant effect on its operations. “Al Baghdadi was the founder of ISIS... He was an inspirational leader in addition to being a thug and a murderer,” Esper said, adding that taking out such a leader would have a major impact on the organisation. But Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both cautioned that there is much to be done to totally defeat Daesh.

And that is the new challenge. Even without their leader, Daesh is believed to have as many as 18,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, including some 3,000 foreign fighters. Given the rushed US withdrawal from Syria and Turkey’s subsequent entry and attacks on Kurdish militia positions, Syria remains a mess. Former US National Security Advisor Susan Rice cautioned that removing the US presence from Syria would allow the group to reform under new leadership. “You can’t take the pressure off and expect these groups not to reconstitute,” she said. “They may come back with a different name and a different leader, but the ideology remains and the ambition remains.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.