ISIS 2020: New Structures and Leaders in Iraq Revealed
ISIL is using the Iraqi government's weakness and US focus on Iran to retool. And if the Iraqi government keeps marginalizing Sunni Iraqis, they are going to welcome ISIL (again).
Read the rest of the article at the link.After the loss of its caliphate last year, ISIS overhauled its structures. A clearer picture of its post-caliphate leadership has emerged from details gathered by Iraqi intelligence agencies. Below is an exclusive analysis on the group’s efforts to revive itself institutionally under new management.
In a July 2016 video communique, ISIS provided details of the structure of its caliphate, which it claimed consisted of 35 wilayat (provinces), with 19 in Syria and Iraq. The organization also had 14 diwans (ministries) and five departments responsible for remote provinces, public and tribal relations, research and studies, immigration, and issues related to deceased or captured members.
Some 43 of its known founders were killed during the 2017-2019 campaign, including its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Besides those core leaders, 79 key mid-level commanders were killed, in addition to hundreds of field and logistical commanders. Importantly, both Iraqi and U.S. intelligence sources confirmed that the new leader of ISIS, identified by the group only as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, is Ameer Muhammed Saeed al-Salbi al-Mawla, a long-standing leader from Tal Afar in northern Iraq.
Only a minority of ISIS forces are engaged in active combat in some areas in northern and central Iraq. Beneath the new “caliph,” there are two high-level committees: a five-member Shura (Consultative) Council, headed by Hajji Juma Awad al-Badri, al-Baghdadi’s brother; and a five-member Delegated Committee (the highest executive body) led by Sami Jassim al-Jubori. Each member of the latter is in charge of a portfolio (security, safe houses, religious affairs, media, and funding). A notable change is that the Delegative Committee has further decentralized the various sectors on a local level, which operate semi-autonomously and are financially self-sufficient, and reduced suicide bombings to a minimum.
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