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Islamic State silent on Baghdadi death as it searches for successor

Islamic State silent on Baghdadi death as it searches for successor
By Ulf Laessing and Omar Fahmy

CAIRO (Reuters) – Islamic State supporters have responded with silence and disbelief days after the death of their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, suggesting a breakdown in the command structure of the Sunni militant group trying to agree on a successor.

There has been no official statement or mourning on Baghdadi on Islamic State’s (IS) official Telegram channel since U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday his killing at the hands of special operations forces in northwestern Syria.

Its Amaq news agency Telegram has been continuing business as usual, posting since Sunday more than 30 claims of attacks in Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan and Iraq praising its fighters.

There has also been less chatter among jihadist supporters on social media compared to the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 and other militant leaders.

Analysts said the remains of Islamic State’s leadership were in a state of shock probably trying to keep the group together and agree on a successor before confirming Baghdadi’s killing.

“There is probably right now chaos inside what is left of the leadership. Key aides have been killed and documents destroyed,” said Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi expert on militant groups.

“They will want to agree on a successor before announcing the death,” he said, adding that a split of the group could delay this.

The group might also need to rebrand itself since using Baghdadi’s declared Islamic caliphate was no longer appropriate having lost the swathes of Iraq, Syria and Libya its fighters used to control until 2017, analysts said.

Many of Baghdadi’s followers were also killed, Trump said on Sunday.

On Tuesday, he wrote on Twitter the U.S. military had likely killed the person who likely would have succeeded Baghdadi as Islamic State leader. Trump did not specify who he was referring to, but a senior State Department official on Monday confirmed the killing of Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, Islamic State spokesman and a high-ranking IS figure, in an operation separate from the one that killed Baghdadi.

It took al Qaeda, another Sunni militant group following a similar ideology which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, several days before it confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid, said Aymenn al-Tamimi, a researcher at Swansea University focused on Islamic State.

About six weeks passed before the group announced a successor to bin Laden.

“Islamic State could announce the death in their weekly news letter which could come out on Thursday if they were able to agree on a successor,” said Tamimi.

He said Hajj Abdullah, a deputy of Baghdadi, was his likely successor, provided he was still alive.

There had been conflicting reports before whether Baghdadi was still alive after the Islamic State lost its last significant territory in Syria in March, resorting since then to hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.

His last audio message was in September.

DEFIANCE

There has been less chatter online among supporters of militant groups compared to times when militants were previously killed.

Social media platforms such as Twitter are now quicker at deleting accounts linked to militants, while several Arab countries have stepped up online surveillance. That forces users to constantly change encrypted accounts.

Of those Islamic State supporters who went online after Trump’s announcement following an initial stunning silence, many voiced disbelief or dismissed the news as fake.

A Telegram account linked to IS warned supporters not to believe an alleged image announcing the death. The message ended with “God almighty preserve him (Baghdadi)”, suggesting the poster still believed Baghdadi was alive.

Other supporters seemed ready to embrace his death, urging supporters to continue the jihadist fight in any case.

“Whatever happens the jihad convoy moves forward and will not stop even if the state is annihilated,” one supporter wrote on a personal Telegram account.

Tamimi said there was not much mourning as many militant supporters were glad to see Baghdadi dead because he had in their view damaged the jihad project by his group’s cruelty by meting out punishments such as amputations of legs and hands.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Sunni group formerly known as the Nusra Front and which dominates Idlib in northwestern Syria where Baghdadi was killed, praised his death.

“The only regret they had was that they hadn’t killed him instead of U.S. forces,” said Tamimi.

In contrast to Islamic State, supporters of al Qaeda quickly accepted Baghdadi’s death, according to the U.S.-based SITE Intel Group which monitors jihadist websites.

“How much blood has been shed in the name of his imaginary Caliphate?” posted Sirajuddin Zurayqat, a former official in a former al Qaeda-linked group, Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, SITE said.

Late on Monday, hardline Saudi Sunni cleric Abdullah al-Muhaysini also published an 18-minute video praising Baghdadi’s death, urging followers to quit IS.

“For some, Baghdadi’s death might be the final straw to quit the group and go back to al Qaeda,” said Elisabeth Kendall, senior research fellow in Arabic and Islamic studies at Oxford University.

(Additional reporting by Yousef Saba; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Khamenei’s representative says Islamic state’s Baghdadi ‘definitely dead’: IRNA

An Islamic State flag is seen in this picture

ANKARA (Reuters) – Iran’s state news agency quoted a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday as saying Islamic State’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was “definitely dead”.

“Terrorist Baghdadi is definitely dead,” IRNA quoted cleric Ali Shirazi, representative to the Quds Force, as saying, without elaborating. IRNA later updated the news item, omitting the quote on Baghdadi’s death.

The Quds Force is in charge of operations outside Iran’s borders by the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iranian Foreign Ministry officials were not available to comment on the report of Baghdadi’s death.

The secretive Islamic State leader has frequently been reported killed or wounded since he declared a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from a mosque in Mosul in 2014, after his fighters seized large areas of northern Iraq.

Russia said on June 17 its forces might have killed Baghdadi in an air strike in Syria. Washington said on Thursday it had no information to corroborate such reports. Iraqi officials have also been skeptical in recent weeks.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; editing by Andrew Roche)

As Trump stresses ‘America First’, China plays the world leader

Xi Jinping, China's President

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – China is calmly mapping out global leadership aspirations from trade to climate change, drawing distinctions between President Xi Jinping’s steady hand and new U.S. President Donald Trump, whose first days have been marked by media feuds and protests.

Just days ahead of Trump taking office, a self-assured Xi was in Switzerland as the keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, offering a vigorous defense of globalization and signaling Beijing’s desire to play a bigger role on the world stage.

Even on the thorny issue of the South China Sea, Beijing did not rise to the bait of White House remarks this week about “defending international territories” in the disputed waterway. Instead, China stressed its desire for peace and issued a restrained call for Washington to watch what it says.

“You have your ‘America first’, we have our ‘community of common destiny for mankind’,” Retired Major-General Luo Yuan, a widely read Chinese military figure best known for his normally hawkish tone, wrote on his blog this week.

“You have a ‘closed country’, we have ‘one belt, one road’,” he added, referring to China’s multi-billion dollar new Silk Road trade and investment program.

And while China has repeatedly said it does not want the traditional U.S. role of world leadership, a senior Chinese diplomat accepted this week it could be forced upon China.

“If anyone were to say China is playing a leadership role in the world I would say it’s not China rushing to the front but rather the front runners have stepped back leaving the place to China,” said Zhang Jun, director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s international economics department.

STEPPING UP

That message was reinforced this week when Trump formally withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, distancing America from its Asian allies. Several remaining TPP members said they would now look to include China in a revised pact, or pursue Beijing’s alternative free trade agreements.

“At many important multilateral forums, China’s leader has put forward Chinese proposals, adding positive impetus to world development,” Su Xiaohui a senior researcher at the Foreign Ministry-backed China Institute of International Studies, wrote of the U.S. TPP decision in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily.

“In the economic integration process of the Asia Pacific, compared to certain countries who constantly bear in mind their leadership role, what China pays even more attention to is ‘responsibility’ and ‘stepping up’,” Su said.

China’s hosting of an international conference on its “One Belt, One Road” initiative in May is one opportunity for Beijing to showcase its leadership of global infrastructure and investment.

A diplomatic source familiar with preparations said China was likely to hold it at the same glitzy convention center used to host the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2014, setting the stage for Xi’s most high profile diplomatic event of the year.

“China’s pretty much inviting everyone,” the diplomat said.

Another area where China is keen to be seen as leading the way is climate change. Trump has in the past dismissed climate change as a “hoax” and vowed during his presidential campaign to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Li Junhua, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Organizations and Conferences, said world was worried about climate change and whether countries would honor their Paris commitments.

“As far as China is concerned, my president has made it extremely clear, crystal clear, China will do its part,” Li told reporters.

LEARNING PROCESS

It’s not always been this way. China has been through a long, tough learning process to become a more responsible power.

In 2013, China, angered with Manila over the long dispute on the South China Sea, only stumped up meager aid to the Philippines after it was hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan, prompting rare dissent in the influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times that Beijing’s international image would be hit.

It also will not be plain sailing. On certain key core issues including the self-ruled island of Taiwan, China will not back down.

In its first official reaction to Trump taking office, China’s Foreign Minister urged his administration to fully understand the importance of the “one China” principle, which Trump has called into doubt and under which Washington acknowledges China’s position of sovereignty over Taiwan.

China also expects that under the Trump administration it will be left alone on one issue that has long dogged ties with Washington – human rights.

The WeChat account of the overseas edition of the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily noted with approval on Saturday that Trump’s inaugural speech neither mentioned the words “democracy” nor “human rights”.

“Perhaps looking back, these things have been hyped up too much” by U.S. politicians, it added.

(Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Powerful Jewish Leader Leaving Anti-Defamation League

Abraham Foxman, who has lead the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for 30 years, announced that he will be retiring this month.

Foxman began his career with the ADL in 1965 when he graduated from law school and rose to be the group’s head in 1987.  Under his leadership, the group has become a $60 million a year organization that runs anti-bias programs, monitors anti-Semitism in the United States and around the world along with advocating for Jews and Israel.

Foxman received praise from all corners of the political world after his announcement.

“Abe is one of the three or four people you have to speak to on any given issue,” said former White House official Jarrod Bernstein, who did Jewish outreach during President Barack Obama’s first term.

“Abe was like an uncle to me. If you did something he thought you were on the wrong side of, he was going to let you know about it,” Bernstein told JTA. “On the flip side, if he thought you were being treated unfairly, or you did something right, he wouldn’t hesitate to say that either. That’s important and we need more of that in the American Jewish community.”

Foxman believes that the work of the ADL is the reason the United States has some of the lowest incidents of anti-Semitism in the world.

“I don’t take credit for it, but I’m part of the effort — not only of the American Jewish community, but of decent people in this country, to fight it,” Foxman said.

“The most significant difference between the United States and the rest of the world is that in this country, there is a consequence to being a bigot and an anti-Semite. If you’re in commerce, if you’re in politics, if you’re in the arts — whatever it is — and you act out as an anti-Semite, you will pay a price.”

Foxman will be replaced by Jonathan Greenblatt, a White House aide.

ISIS Reportedly Selected Replacement For Wounded Leader

The terrorist group ISIS reportedly has a new commander after an airstrike severely wounded their previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Iraqi government advisor Hisham al Hashimi told Newsweek that al-Baghdadi was injured during a March airstrike and has not been able to return to day-to-day leadership of the terrorist group.  Hashimi said that Abu Alaa Afri has been running the group in al-Baghdadi’s absence.

“After Baghdadi’s wounding, he [Afri] has begun to head up Daesh [arabic term for ISIS] with the help of officials responsible for other portfolios,” Hashimi said. “He will be the leader of Daesh if Baghdadi dies.”

“He was a physics teacher in Tal Afar [northwestern Iraqi city] in Nineveh, and has dozens of publications and religious (Shariah) studies of his own,” the government adviser said. “He is a follower of Abu Musaab al-Suri [prominent jihadi scholar].”

U.S. military officials say it’s next to impossible for them to be able to confirm that al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded despite the claim of the Iraqi official.  Al-Baghdadi was rumored to have died in an airstrike in November before releasing a new recording condemning those who oppose ISIS.

The news comes on the heels of ISIS releasing another video last Sunday showing them beheading Christians from Ethiopia.

ISIS Leader Wounded In Airstrikes

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been severely wounded in one of the airstrikes aimed at stopping the advance of the terrorist group.

Iraqi officials said Sunday that al-Baghdadi was struck during a U.S. airstrike on a convoy near the town of Qaim in western Iraq.

In addition to the wounding of the group’s leader, several key ISIS officials were killed in the attack including al-Baghdadi’s right hand man, Auf Abdulrahman Elefery.  Twenty terrorists total were killed in the airstrike on the ISIS leader.

Baghdadi was an Islamic preacher who radicalized after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.  He later received training from al-Qaeda and lead the ISIS breakaway from al-Qaeda with designs to be the main Islamic terrorist group in the world.

Officials say that airstrikes over the weekend killed over 50 ISIS terrorists in addition to the strike that wounded al-Baghdadi.  President Obama has said he will send an additional 1,500 troops to the region to “train” the Iraqi army.

Southern Baptist Convention Elects “Radical” Head Of International Mission Board

The Southern Baptist Convention announced the election of a “radical” as the head of their International Mission Board.

Pastor David Platt, author of the book “Radical” and an fierce advocate for international missions, was elected to had the IMB for the denomination’s 16 million members.

“I believe Southern Baptists want to come together for the spread of the Gospel,” said Platt.

“While the world is becoming more hostile and anti-Christian in some places, it’s as if [young missionaries’] passion is growing equally to go to those hard places,” David Uth of the IMB presidential search committee told Christian Post. “That’s where we hear young couples saying they want to go, that they want to be radically obedient to what God has called us to do for the nations. The passion is there. How do we equip them and resource them? How do we incorporate strategy that’s effective? David is going to address that in a way that’s going to bring maximum impact.”

Pastor Rick Warren, whose church is non-denominational but is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, said he was “thrilled and excited” by the appointment of Platt and LifeWay Research president Ed Stetzer called Platt “a leader whose private life matches his public face.”

“Even in a generation where religious pluralism, moral relativism, and biblical skepticism are increasing, there is still power in the Word by His Spirit so He is still drawing people to Himself,” Platt told CP. “I can’t think of anything particularly creative or innovative that I am or we are doing, apart from proclaiming His word and trying to authentically live it out. I believe that when we are faithful to do that then the Lord will draw people to Himself. I think God has designed this whole picture so that only He can get the glory for success in bringing people to Himself.”

New India Prime Minster Could Cause Tension With Muslims

The partial results in India’s national election shows a major landslide victory for opposition leader Narendra Modi, making him the country’s next prime minister.

The election results are causing international observers to be concerned about the future security of the nation as the country’s 138 million Muslims see Modi as an enemy.

Modi, a Hindu nationalist, reportedly was a leader in a region of the country where a 2005 riot led to the deaths of many Muslims.  Islamic leaders in the country say that Modi did not do enough to stop the violence and have sworn to do all they can to undermine Modi.

The results seem to show that the BJP party will have total control of the parliament, the first time one party will have complete control without building a coalition since 1984 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

India is on the verge of becoming a major world power as many young India residents are taking their experience with technology and beginning their own tech corporations.  The younger residents are also more westernized and then to look at Europe and the U.S. for their inspirations, which will cause disruptions in India’s traditional culture.

Pakistani Taliban Choose Plotter Of Teenager’s Murder As Leader

The Pakistani Taliban announced they have chosen as their new leader the man who planned the assassination of a teenage girl.

Mullah Fazlullah, who designed a failed assassination attempt on schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai, was named the new leader by the Taliban’s leadership council.

Militants fired AK-47 assault rifles and anti-aircraft guns in the air to celebrate the decision.

Fazlullah replaces Hakimullah Mehsud who was killed in a U.S. drone strike on Friday. Fazlullah is considered a hard-liner and has already rejected any peace talks with the Pakistani government.

Fazlullah’s branch of the Taliban routinely blew up schools with children inside and banned women from being able to go outside without male accompaniment. They would force all men to grow beards or face Sharia law.