Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

ISIS Leader

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Arabic: أبو بكر البغدادي, romanized: ʾAbū Bakr al-Baḡdādī; born Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai (Arabic: إبراهيم عواد إبراهيم علي محمد البدري السامرائي, romanized: ʾIbrāhīm ʿAwwād ʾIbrāhīm ʿAlī Muḥammad al-Badrī as-Sāmarrāʾī); 28 July 1971 – 27 October 2019), was an Iraqi militant and the first caliph of the Islamic State from 2014 until his death in 2019.

Baghdadi was born in 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 joined al-Qaeda in Iraq there and rose through the ranks until he was appointed emir—the highest leader—in 2010.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq reorganized and renamed itself into Islamic State of Iraq during this time.In June 2014, the group permanently broke with al-Qaeda, renamed itself the "Islamic State", and declared itself a caliphate.

Baghdadi was chosen caliph of ISIL by the Shura Council, who represented those members of the Islamic State qualified to elect a caliph.

Baghdadi's claim to be "caliph" was almost universally rejected by the Muslim community.ISIL was designated as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and almost all sovereign states, and Baghdadi was individually considered a terrorist by the United States and many other countries.

As leader of IS, Baghdadi led the Islamic State's wars against Iraq and Syria.Baghdadi directed the use of extremely controversial tactics, including the mass use of suicide bombings and the execution of prisoners of war.

ISIL briefly captured substantial territory in Iraq and Syria, but lost all of that territory and almost all of its fighters during Baghdadi's tenure as caliph.

Baghdadi would become directly involved in ISIL's atrocities and human rights violations.These include the genocide of Yazidis in Iraq, extensive sexual slavery, organized rape, floggings, and systematic executions.

He directed terrorist activities and massacres.He embraced brutality as part of the organization's propaganda efforts, producing videos displaying sexual slavery and executions via hacking, stoning, and burning.

Baghdadi himself was a serial rapist who kept several personal sex slaves.On 27 October 2019, Baghdadi 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.