Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sought to establish a new Islamic “caliphate” across Syria and Iraq, but he might be remembered more as the ruthlessly calculating militant leader of the Islamic State group who brought terror to the heart of Europe and set up a short-lived organisation so extreme that it was shunned even by al-Qaida.
With a $25 million US Bounty on his head, al-Baghdadi steered his chillingly violent and surprisingly disciplined followers into new territory by capitalising on feelings of Sunni supremacy and disenfranchisement at a time of tumult that followed the Arab Spring.
One of the few senior ISIS commanders still at large after two years of steady battlefield losses, al-Baghdadi died Saturday when he detonated his suicide vest in a tunnel while being pursued by US Forces north of Idlib, Syria, killing himself and three of his children, US President Donald Trump announced Sunday. He was believed to be 48.
“He didn’t die a hero, he died a coward, crying, whimpering and screaming,” Trump said at the White House, adding that the US Had al-Baghdadi under surveillance for weeks.