Daesh prepares to appoint new leader

Daesh has begun its recovery from the heavy blow dealt by the death of its former leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi. Security officials and analysts argue that the successor could be a commander with extensive military experience whose death was announced last year by the US and Iraq.

The death of al-Qurashi comes two years after the operation in which Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed. It is known that the leader did not speak to any of his followers and avoided electronic communications that could give him away. In addition, he was in charge of supervising the different units that were under heavy pressure from Iraqi and US forces.

Fadel Aborghev, an Iraqi expert and advisor to the security services, claims that there are four possible candidates for the position. Two of them were already known to play a leadership role in some Iraqi cities. Another candidate is said to have had a close relationship with al-Baghdadi and al-Qurashi.

The fourth candidate is Abu Yasser al-Issawi, who "is suspected to be still alive despite being mourned by the organisation", and was allegedly killed in an airstrike. His position is very important to Daesh because of his long history of warfare.

An Iraqi official claims that, if he was not killed, he has considerable experience in planning military attacks and has hundreds of followers. The organisation, before announcing the name of its new leader, is likely to do extensive homework to prevent leaks.

Last Friday, the US conducted the attack that killed al-Qurashi. The "caliph" was hiding in a residential building in a small town in Syria's Idlib province. Washington, upon learning his exact location, authorised a special forces operation.

To carry out this mission, Joe Biden waived the use of drone-launched missiles and called in more than 20 elite soldiers. The US military announced their arrival so that civilians could flee the area. Al-Qurashi, upon learning of the soldiers' arrival, killed himself by detonating an explosive.

Biden and Kamala Harris followed the event live from the White House. In addition to the IS leader, thirteen people were killed, including his wife and children. This operation put an end to one of the US government's main objectives, after announcing that the group should pay for the deaths of 13 soldiers who were working on the evacuation of the Kabul airport.

This is the fifth time that the US has killed a terrorist leader since it carried out a targeted bombing of Abu Musab al-Zaqawi, the founder of Daesh, in 2006. The baton was picked up over the years by other fighters until, in 2010, Abu Baker al-Baghdadi came to power and proclaimed the Islamic Caliphate four years later.

The desire to spread their ideals around the world has led them to perpetrate numerous attacks around the world. The most serious attacks have taken place in different cities on the European continent. In 2015, Paris was the scene of two terrorist attacks: the first took place at the editorial office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The second took place at the Bataclan concert hall and on several terraces located in different districts of the French capital. The following year, Brussels, Nice and Berlin were the cities chosen by the jihadists to spread terror again. In the latter two cities, the procedure was the same: they used a heavy truck to attack passers-by.

In 2017, there were attacks both on Barcelona's La Rambla promenade and on Westminster Bridge, the nerve centre of political power in London. Finally, in the same year, a suicide bomber set off an explosive device during a concert by the American singer Ariana Grande at the Manchester Arena.

Alarm bells rang again in the West when Daesh fighters blew up a tanker at the gates of Syria's Hasaka prison in January. The offensive lasted more than a week and was aimed at freeing 3,500 former jihadist fighters. The Kurdish militias relied on US support to quell the biggest armed attack since their defeat in 2019.

Despite the organisation's collapse in Iraq and Syria, its leaders have found it easier to move between the two countries. The 600-kilometre border with Syria does not help Iraqi forces to control the arrival of militants through tunnels. Da'esh will always worry the Western world as a permanent insurgency movement that has no intention of giving up its aims.