CAIRO, May 20. TASS/: Iraqi special security services have announced Wednesday that the possible successor of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, former leader of ISIS neutralized by the US, was captured by them, Iraq’s Alsumaria TV reported.
"Today, terrorist Abdullah Qardash, who was a contender to succeed criminal al-Baghdadi, was arrested," the channel quoted the Iraqi intelligence statement. "The arrest was carried put based on verified information.".
Qardash’s real name is Al-Haj Abdullah Qardash, he is also known as Hajji Abdullah al-Afari. He was born in 1976 in Iraq’s Tal Afar to a Turkman family. He studied in Mosul University and was considered one of Al-Qaeda’s ideologists.
Some reports suggest that he met al-Baghdadi in 2004 in US Camp Bucca prison, where they both served their sentences. Qardash was one of the ISIS foudners, laid down its ideology and planned a number of operations. He has been on the US terrorist list since 2015, a $5 million award is promised for him.
On October 27, US President Donald Trump said that al-Baghdadi had been killed during a special operation in Syria’s Idlib Governorate. He thanked Russia, Iraq, Syria and Turkey for their assistance. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had no reliable information on al-Baghdadi’s death. The international community called the slaying of al-Baghdadi an important but not decisive step, calling for continuing the war on terror.
