Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (born July 28, 1971, Arāḍī al-Jallām, Baghdād governorate [now in Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn governorate], Iraq—died October 26–27, 2019, Bārīshā, Idlib governorate, Syria) leader of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS]) from 2010 to 2019.

The details of Baghdadi’s life remain uncertain or unknown. The anecdotes made public by ISIL paint an image of religious authority and piety, but many of the details have not been independently verified. His education included advanced study in Qurʾānic studies, and in 2007 he received a doctorate from Al-Nahrain University in Baghdad. His performance as a student is unclear, and he never became an accomplished figure among Islamic scholars.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent toppling of Saddam Hussein’s Baʿath Party regime, Baghdadi participated in the insurgency against the U.S. occupation and the interim Iraqi government. He was detained in a U.S. detention centre in February 2004, and, as a “civilian internee” of little concern, he was released in December that same year. (Contrary to reports that surfaced in 2014, the Pentagon has no record of detaining Baghdadi at any other time.) His early activities in the self-branded Islamic State of Iraq (ISI; until 2006 commonly known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq [AQI]) are not known to be significant, and his rise to leadership remains obscure. In 2010 he became the head of the organization.

ISI had become fairly weak and insignificant by the time Baghdadi took the helm, but the growing instability in the region created opportunities for ISI during the period of his leadership. The Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, caused a power vacuum in eastern Syria, allowing ISI fighters to permeate the border and move freely between ungoverned portions of Iraq and Syria. The group gained Syrian recruits who were attracted by its organizational experience and its seasoned fighters. In April 2013 Baghdadi announced his intention to merge the Nusrah Front—another al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria—with ISI under his leadership. But the merger, dubbed by Baghdadi as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, was resisted by the Nusrah Front’s leadership. The competition for recruits led to open fighting between the al-Qaeda affiliates, and in January 2014 ISIL expelled the Nusrah Front from Al-Raqqah, Syria, and used the city as its exclusive territorial base.

Meanwhile, in Iraq the predominantly Shiʿi government became increasingly sectarian, stoking staunch opposition from Sunni populations. In December 2013 Iraqi security forces attempted to quell a protest movement centred in the city of Fallujah, but resistance led to riots and street battles. Local militias were soon joined by militants from ISIL, who took control of the city centre in January 2014. Many Sunnis who had previously fought against the group, which they came to resent for its attempts to interfere in local society, now saw ISIL as a liberating force against an even more intrusive body: the Iraqi government. Capitalizing on its success, ISIL quickly pushed northward and in June captured Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. Later that month ISIL designated Baghdadi “caliph” of its self-proclaimed pan-Islamic state. Days later he made his first public appearance at the weekly jumʿah prayers in Mosul’s Great Mosque.

Baghdadi made few subsequent appearances, however, and his public communications were directed primarily through audio recording. His reclusiveness led to occasional rumours of his death or injury as Iraqi, Syrian, and Kurdish forces advanced on ISIL, but a video recording released in April 2019 demonstrated his survival even after Iraq and Syria declared ISIL defeated in 2017. On the night of October 26–27, 2019, Baghdadi killed himself by self-detonation as U.S. forces closed in on him in Idlib governorate, Syria.