Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Baghdad

IS leader in Hawija proclaims himself emir after Baghdadi’s death reports

 IS leader in Hawija proclaims himself emir after Baghdadi’s death reports

Members of the Islamic State group. File photo.

Members of the Islamic State group. File photo.

Hawija (IraqiNews.com) A senior Islamic State leader in Kirkuk’s Hawija has declared himself a new supreme leader, adding to the state of chaos within the group’s ranks that followed reports of the death of the group’s founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“Abu Haitham al-Obaidi, deputy to the (Islamic State’s) mayor of Hawija, dissented from the group and named himself a new Caliph after Baghdadi’s death reports were confirmed,” said Jabbar al-Maamouri, a leader at the Popular Mobilization Forces, in statements to Alsumaria News.

He explained that Obaidi is a senior military leader, and had withdrew with tens of his loyalists to the western side of Hawija, where he entrenched preparing for a “decisive” confrontation with his opponents.

“Hawija is bracing for a bloody infighting among IS members, the most violent since the group took over Hawija in June 2014,” said Maamouri.

A local source told Alsumaria News earlier that IS’s broadcast service in Hawija mourned Baghdadi and declared plans to name a successor.

Alsumaria News quoted a local source in Tal Afar Tuesday saying that IS made a brief statement in which it confirmed Baghdadi’s death . It said that infighting among Baghdadi’s loyalists and opponents broke out, prompting the group to carry out wide-scale arrests and to impose a curfew at most of the town.

No official Iraqi authority confirmed the reported statement.

Since Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, launched a major offensive in October to retake Mosul, IS’s largest bastion in Iraq, clashing speculations around Baghdadi’s survival were plentuous. Russia said it was 100% sure Baghdadi was killed in a strike in Syria last month, but its declaration was met with skepticism from the United States and other countries.

On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over Islamic State members in Mosul, saying the recapture of the city was an end of the self-styled “caliphate” declared by Baghdadi in 2014.

 

 

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