Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was an Iraqi terrorist and the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from 2014 until his death. Baghdadi was born in or near Samarra, Iraq and obtained graduate degrees in Islamic theology. He joined early Salafi-jihadi groups in Iraq following the US invasion in March 2003 and was detained with Al Qaeda commanders at the American Camp Bucca in 2004.

About Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in brief

Summary Abu Bakr al-BaghdadiAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi was an Iraqi terrorist and the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from 2014 until his death. Baghdadi was born in or near Samarra, Iraq and obtained graduate degrees in Islamic theology in the late 1990s and 2000s. He joined early Salafi-jihadi groups in Iraq following the US invasion in March 2003 and was detained with Al Qaeda commanders at the American Camp Bucca in 2004. He rose through the ranks until he was appointed emir—the highest leader—in 2010. In June 2014, the group permanently broke with al-Qaeda, renamed itself the \”Islamic State\”, and declared itself a caliphate. As leader of IS, Baghdadi led and lost the Islamic state’s wars against Iraq and Syria. He directed the use of extremely controversial tactics, including the mass use of suicide bombings and the execution of prisoners of war. He embraced brutality as part of the organization’s propaganda efforts, producing videos displaying sexual slavery and executions via hacking, stoning, and burning. He himself was a rapist who kept several personal sex slaves. He killed himself and two children by detonating a suicide vest during the Barisha raid, conducted by the United States following approval from President Donald Trump, in Syria’s northwestern Idlib Province. After being offered Islamic funeral rites, his body was buried at sea.

ISIL confirmed his death and named Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as his replacement. Abu Bakr is a nom de guerre. He had various names and epithets, including Abu Du’a, Al-Shabah, Amir al-Mu’minin, Caliph, and Sheikh Baghdadi. He is thought to have adopted the name of the first caliph, Abu Bakr, according to the Sunni tradition of Islam. His surname literally means \”The one from Baghdad\” and denotes that he was from Baghdad city or Baghdad governorate in Iraq. Al-Badri al-Samarrai was apparently born as a member of the tribal group known as Al-Bu Badri, which includes sub-tribes such as the Radiyyah, Husseiniyyah, Adnaniyyah and Qurayshah. His father, Sheikh Awwad, was active in the religious life of the community, although he apparently lived until the age of 94 and witnessed the US occupation of Iraq. According to a short semi-authorized biography, his grandfather, Hajam al-Athari, was Hajam Ali al-BadRI al-Abidari, his father’s uncle, and grandfather’s father’s brother. The word duaa signifies supplications, invocations, or prayers. In regions formerly under ISIL control, various non-Islamic honorifics that recognize his rank were used as a formal address recognizing him as a noble and a head of state that might precede or follow his name. The kunya Abū, corresponds to the English, father of Muhammad.