Baghdadi is gone, but ISIS isn't dead yet and could be poised for a resurgence

Baghdadi is gone, but ISIS isn't dead yet and could be poised for a resurgence

The head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is dead. The man who led the state that called itself Islamic -- first capturing Raqqa in Syria and then leading a blitzkrieg through Iraq, rampaging through Mosul, Tikrit, to the gates of Baghdad -- is no more.

ISIS established a horrifying standard of brutality, re-establishing slavery, practicing what amounted to genocide against the Yazidis, carrying out mass executions and beheadings -- all caught on camera -- and demolishing religious sites and antiquities.

The United States, with the help of its coalition allies, Iraq and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), destroyed the Islamic State and killed Baghdadi.

ISIS, however, is far from finished. It operates in West Africa, Libya, Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, Afghanistan and the Philippines, and has แทงบอลออนไลน์789 followers in Europe and elsewhere. That, in addition to as many as 18,000 fighters still on the loose between Syria and Iraq, according to a report issued by the Pentagon's Inspector General in August.

There is no reason to conclude that the threat from ISIS' far-flung network of affiliates and sympathizers has disappeared with the passing of Baghdadi. He may have excelled in his evil mission, but he was at the top of a pyramid of power and others will come forward to claim his mantle of leadership and perhaps learn from his demise.

Baghdadi never had a cult of personality. He did stress that he was a descendent of the Prophet Muhammad to burnish his Islamic credentials, but he never rose to the level of al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, who was recognizable the world over.

Bin Laden first came to fame during the 1980s, when he led the so-called Arab mujahideen in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. In the 1990s, from Sudan and then Afghanistan, he gave interviews to the Western media, including CNN, and even after the 9/11 attacks แทงบอล789 on the United States he issued statements and put out videos.

As khalifa, or caliph, of the Islamic State, Baghdadi never granted an interview to anyone. Yet in the end the Americans found him, and killed him, "whimpering, screaming and crying," according to US President Donald Trump.

ISIS is not going to disappear. It may morph into something else, just as Osama bin Laden's Arab mujahideen morphed into al Qaeda, which gave birth to al Qaeda in Iraq, which transformed into ISIS.