Table of Contents
Context
- On October 26, the top leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr-al-Baghdadi blew himself in a dead-end tunnel.
- He was a “leader on the run” for more than five years
- His killing will only be a short-term setback for the network.
Background
- Formation of
- Caliphate
- Propaganda
- Decentralised wilayas(branches)
- Unique modus operandi
- Operation Inherent Resolve
Operation Kayla Mueller
- Barisha Raid
- The stealth operation that claimed the life of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named after 26-year-old Kayla Mueller.
What now?
- Only a temporary setback
- Prepared for the eventuality
- More ready to prove resilience
- Attacks after
- Huge cadres
Situation in Syria
- The weakening of the Syrian Democratic Force’s position
- Sectarian fault lines and public protests in Iraq and Lebanon,
- Foreign networks: South Asia
- India
Challenges ahead
- What happened to the IS now is similar to what happened to the AQI
- Now that Baghdadi is also gone, the IS is at the weakest point of its short history.
- The IS, like its peers in global jihadism such as al-Qaeda, is not a completely leader-dependent organisation.
- It is fundamentally an insurgency comprising ideologically linked autonomous cells and loyal to one leadership.
Way forward
- With the IS’s double loss, the focus should now be on stabilising Iraq and Syria.
- Efforts should be on to end the conditions that led to the rise of the AQI and the IS.
- This is crucial to make Baghdadi’s death meaningful in the global fight against terrorism.
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