Saddam's Ex-Officers Likely to Replace Al-Baghdadi

Rasa - ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, if confirmed dead, is likely to be succeeded by one of his two top deputies who were army officers during the time of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

News ID: 430555

Date: 24 June 2017 - 21:38

RNA - According to Russia Today, experts on ISIL terrorist group see no other successor for Baghdadi but Iyad al-Obaidi and Ayad al-Jumaili.

Russia's defense ministry said last week al-Baghdadi may have been killed in an air strike in Syria and Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian parliamentarian on Friday as saying the likelihood that he had been killed was close to 100 percent.

Obaidi, who is in his 50s, was the ISIL's war minister. Jumaili, who is in his late 40s, is the head of the terrorist group's security agency.

In April Iraqi state TV said Jumaili had been killed, but that report was not confirmed.

The head of the defense committee in the Russian upper house of parliament, Viktor Ozerov, said the likelihood that al-Baghdadi has been killed is close to 100 percent.

“I think this information is close to 100 percent,” said Ozerov.

“The fact that ISIL has still not shown him anywhere also adds to our confidence that al-Baghdadi has been killed.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry, according to RIA news agency, said on Thursday there was high degree of certainty that ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was dead.

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