On August 8, the official Turkish Anadolu News Agency carried the following report from Baghdad by its correspondent Amer al-Hassani: “The media affiliated with the terrorist ISIL organization mentioned that Leader of the organization Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi nominated Iraqi national Abdullah Qardash as his successor. Amaq News Agency, the media arm of ISIL, thus carried a report on Tuesday night saying that Al-Baghdadi nominated Abdullah Qardash of Turkmen origins from Tal Afar District in West Mosul to “care of the affairs of the Muslims,” as per his terms. For his part, Iraqi security expert Fadel Abu Raghif wrote on Twitter that Al-Baghdadi’s successor was arrested at Boca prison (in Basra Governorate), previously held a key religious post in Al-Qa’idah organization, and was a graduate of Imam al-Aazam Faculty in Mosul City.

“Abu Raghif continued that Qardash was close to Leader Abu Ala’a al-Afri (Al-Baghdadi’s deputy and the number two man in ISIL’s command who was killed in 2016), and that his father was an eloquent and rational speaker. He added that Qardash was harsh, authoritarian and extremist, and was the first to receive Al-Baghdadi upon Mosul’s fall. At the end of July, Commander of the Hawks Cell affiliated with the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Abu Ali al-Basri, had stated that Al-Baghdadi was present in Syria, and had introduced changes to compensate for the fall of terrorists in the last few years. Al-Basri continued that Al-Baghdadi was suffering from paralysis after his spine was hit by the shrapnel of a missile that fell during the Hawks Cell operation conducted in coordination with the Air Force, as he was meeting with his aides in Hajin area southeast of the Syrian Deir Ezzor governorate, prior to its liberation in 2018.”