[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] News reports that the United States-led coalition attacked successfully a 10-truck Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) convoy outside djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
injured top leaders of ISIS including, as reports suggest, its leader and self-appointed caliph, His Supreme Immensity, Caliph of the Faithful and Galactic Overlord, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
...formerly merely the head of ISIL and a veteran of the Bagram jailhouse. Looks like a new messiah to bajillions of Moslems, like just another dead-eyed mass murder to the rest of us...
, is significant. According to the reports, Baghdadi, was "critically maimed" in the American-led air strike that targeted the western Iraqi border town of al-Qaim.
The key question is how ISIS fighters will interpret the loss of the leadership and especially if al-Baghdadi is critically injured and ultimately dies. We must recall that al-Baghdadi was reportedly injured just months before.
We have a number of occasions where American airpower decapitated the leaderships of Islamist Death Eater terrorist groups.
The deaths of Al-Qaeda leader the late Osama bin Laden
... who is no longer with us, and won't be again...
and U.S.-born radical holy man Anwar al-Awlaki
... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and
UndieboomerUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list...
immediately come to mind. Yet the results of the high-level killings, as well as other targeted strikes on key planners and operators, seem to be limited. While such strikes provide instant gratification, the problem still remains.
Attacks and battles between terrorist groups and their enemies continue. As noted by many observers, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are still alive and well despite the loss of key leaders. The same can be said for ISIS and their adherents.
Potential loss
The wounding and potential loss of Baghdadi may be of more significance for his followers. Baghdadi, as "Caliph Ibrahim," to maintain his religious foundation, needs to be of a whole body. If he loses a limb in his injuries, his credibility suffers. If he dies, the death would toss the entire concept of the legitimacy of the "Caliphate" on its head. ISIS discourse will likely need to be revised and new leaders will emerge. But clearly, from historical examples, succession in the historical caliphates was often a chaotic and vicious event.