On May 20, 2020, in a brief statement the intelligence agency said: “Today, the terrorist named Nasser al-QIRDASH, the candidate to succeed the criminal (Abu BAKR) al-BAGHDADI, the leader of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, has been arrested”.

Al-Sumaria, Iraqi news agency published photos of al-QIRDASH.

After al-BAGHDADI was killed in an air raid last in October 2019, ISIL appointed Abu Ibrahim al-HASHEMI al-QURAISHI as the successor to al-BAGHDADI, while al-QIRDASH was appointed to the number two position.

The announcement of al-QIRDASH’s arrest coincides with the escalation of attacks in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq by suspected ISIL fighters, especially in the region between Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Diyala.

The Arabic Special Correspondent at the BBC Feras KILANI, wrote on Twitter: “In intentional play with the phrase ‘potential candidate to succeed Al- BAGHDADI’ used by Iraqi intelligence, Abdul Nasser QIRDASH, because of his importance, is not Abdullah QIRDASH, the senior leader of the organization, and the latter is not from behind al- BAGHDADI, but rather al-QURAISHI, whose name is Amir Muhammad Abd al-RAHMAN al-SALABI, which was confirmed by Washington”. “The matter seems to have a direct relationship to internal accounts, as the intelligence service is still affiliated with PM Mustafa al-KAZEMI, although information confirms that he has been in detention for some time and is being questioned, perhaps before the formation of the government that was announced a few days ago.”

“He’s not the leader of Isis, he was part of the delegated committee”, “He was just handed over to the Iraqis by the Syrians and Americans” wrote on Twitter Hassan HASSAN author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.

Husham al-HASHIMI a Member of the Iraq Advisory Council also wrote on Twitter: “Soon a dialogue with the last head of the commissioned committee in ISIS before the killing of al-BAGHDADI, who is detained by the Iraqi security services, a data bank and a witness to al-Qaeda and ISIS since 2007, he held high positions in al-Qaeda and ISIS, most notably his leadership in eastern Syria 2011-2019, and he is one of the most mainstream Tightened inside ISIS.”.

Speaking to Al Arabiya, al-QIRDASH confirmed that ISIS leadership, at the request of al-BAGHDADI, reevaluated the terrorist group’s ideas after in recent years after it began losing many of its strongholds.

“There was a massive reevaluation of the Islamic State after it lost vast areas including Kobani and many other areas. There were three of us, myself, Omar al-FURKAN and Ayoub RAKAWI, who sat with the leadership to review our steps,” al-QIRDASH told to Al Arabiya.

This article was edited using the data from the aljazeera.com, www.thenational.ae, recordnews.uk, dailymail.co.uk, and english.alarabiya.net.

Source of the photo: recordnews.uk.