The wife of the mysterious leader of the Islamic State (IS) group, the self-proclaimed “Caliph of all Muslims” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, left him. And she literally left - from IS-controlled territory. This news sheds some light on the personal life of the man who leads the most sinister terrorist group of our time. However, very little is still known about al-Baghdadi's personality, and not only to citizens Western countries, but also to the subjects of the caliphate itself. Lenta.ru studied the facts of the biography of the leader of world jihadism and tried to understand how a ruthless extremist grew from a quiet child.

Childish steps of the future caliph

The future caliph Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri was born in the Iraqi city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971. Power in the country then belonged to the pan-Arab secularist left-wing Baath party.

Ibrahim's father, Awwad, was actively involved in the religious life of the community and taught at the local mosque. It was there that his son took his first steps as a theologian: he gathered the neighborhood boys, and they read the Koran together. They say that Ibrahim was quiet child and spent a lot of time honing the skill of reciting religious texts.

The Baathists did not actively encourage the spread of religion, but they did not fight it either. Some of Ibrahim's relatives even joined the ranks of the ruling party. Two of the future caliph's uncles worked in President Saddam Hussein's intelligence services; one of his brothers was an officer in Saddam's army, and another brother died in the Iraq-Iran war. Ibrahim himself was too young at the beginning of the conflict to take part in it.

Among Ibrahim’s relatives there were also supporters of Salafist ideas - according to some sources, his father was also a Salafist. The secular regime of Saddam Hussein tried to limit the influence of radicals and attract them to its side, for which purpose the Saddam University of Islamic Sciences was opened in Baghdad in 1989.

Since 1993, the Iraqi leader began a “return to faith campaign”: nightclubs were closed in the country, public consumption of alcohol was prohibited, and Sharia rules were introduced to a limited extent (for example, hands were cut off for theft). Over the course of several years, Saddam Hussein donated 28 liters of his own blood to write a copy of the Koran placed in one of the mosques in the capital.

Saddam Hussein encouraged the cult of his personality and feared the strengthening of radical Islamists - he saw them as the main threat to his power.

From lawyer to extremist

When it's time to decide higher education, Ibrahim al-Badri tried to enter the University of Baghdad to study law, but his poor knowledge of English and unimportant grades let him down. As a result, he went to the Faculty of Theology, and then entered the University of Islamic Sciences, where he received a master's degree in qiraats (schools for public recitation of the Koran).

While studying for a master's degree, at the insistence of his uncle, Ibrahim joined the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood. This supranational Islamist organization advocated the creation of religious Islamic states, but in most countries its followers chose cautious tactics and did not support armed struggle with the authorities. Al-Badri such ideas seemed too soft - he called their followers people of words, not deeds, and the future caliph quickly joined the most radical members of the organization.

After receiving his master's degree in 2000, al-Badri settled in a small apartment in a poor area of ​​Baghdad, next to a mosque. In four years, he managed to change two wives and become the father of six children. The future leader of the Islamic State made a living by teaching children to read the Koran and calling the faithful to prayer. There was a football club at the mosque, and al-Badri played so successfully that he earned the nickname “our Messi” among local residents. He also supervised Islamic piety: for example, according to neighbors, having once seen men and women dancing together at a wedding, Ibrahim decisively demanded that the disgrace stop.

Jihad Academy

In 2004, al-Badri was arrested by the Americans - he went to visit a friend who was wanted. The future caliph ended up in the Camp Bucca filtration camp, where the occupation administration kept suspicious Iraqis. They were not prohibited from performing religious rituals, and the future caliph skillfully took advantage of this: he gave lectures on religion, conducted Friday prayers and gave instructions to the captives in accordance with his interpretation of Islam.

Prisoners said that Camp Bucca had become a veritable academy for jihadism. “Teach him, instill an ideology and show him the further path, so that at the time of liberation he becomes a blazing flame,” - this is how one of the former prisoners described the strategy of Islamic theologians inside the filtration camp in relation to each new arrival.

Prisoners at Camp Bucca during a group prayer.

The guards identified potential leaders, tried to separate the nascent terrorist cells into different cells, but failed to discern the future Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in the quiet and inconspicuous Ibrahim al-Badri. “He was a bad guy, but he wasn’t the worst of the worst,” says former Camp Bucca guard Sergeant Kenneth King. According to him, al-Badri was not even transferred to the section for dangerous suspects.

Al-Badri was released in 2006. “Well, guys, see you in New York,” the future caliph said goodbye to the guards. “It sounded peaceful, like, 'We'll see you when the opportunity arises,'” King admitted.

Career Khalift

After his release, al-Badri contacted al-Qaeda in Iraq, who advised him to move to Damascus. In the Syrian capital, he had the opportunity, in addition to working for terrorists, to complete his dissertation. Then a conflict began in the ranks of the jihadists, which led to the transformation of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda into the brutal Islamic State of Iraq.

Al-Badri, who has a serious religious education, came in handy: he was appointed head of the religious direction in the Iraqi “provinces” of the organization. The caliphate did not have any territory at that time, so Ibrahim was mainly involved in developing a propaganda strategy and making sure that the militants strictly followed religious instructions.

In March 2007, he returned to Baghdad, where he defended his dissertation and became a doctor of Koranic studies. His scientific success attracted the attention of the then leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who made al-Badri head of the Sharia Committee - that is, responsible for all religious work of the terrorist organization.

In 2010, Masri was killed and IS was de facto beheaded. Then Haji Bakr, a former intelligence officer of Saddam Hussein and the chief strategist of the Islamic State of Iraq, came to the aid of the future caliph. He could not become the leader of the organization - his reputation as a former intelligence officer was compromised, and then Haji Bakr, through manipulation and persuasion, achieved the election of the authoritative theologian al-Badri to the post of temporary leader of the group. Bakr hoped that he could control the new "emir". He partially succeeded - people from Iraqi intelligence during the Hussein era were appointed to key positions.

In 2013, the group began participating in hostilities in Syria and changed its name to the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIS), and after the blitzkrieg of the summer of 2014, it shortened it to “Islamic State.” At the same time, Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri declared himself caliph, finally turning into Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“I was appointed to lead you, but I am not the best among you. If you see me acting righteously, follow me. If you see me acting unrighteously, give me advice and guide me. If I disobey Allah, do not listen to me,” he declared in his first public speech as the ruler of a quasi-state. This was a paraphrase of the statement righteous caliph Abu Bakr, the first leader of the Muslim community after the death of the Prophet Muhammad.

Companions of Abu Bakr

Little is known about the first two wives of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, with whom he lived until 2004 - he kept them at home and did not show them to the public. The “wife” who escaped at the end of February 2016 is called Diana Kruger; the girl was helped to break free by her two friends. The Iraqi press reported that al-Baghdadi sent a squad of thugs in pursuit of the women, but their search was unsuccessful.

In the caliphate, Diana was responsible for organizing the lives of women: in particular, she formulated the rules of their behavior according to the norms of Sharia and led the women’s “morality police,” whose units ensured that representatives of the fairer sex did not appear in public without the accompaniment of men (husband or male relatives) and in insufficiently modest clothing. The police acted in accordance with the brutality of the entire IS: for example, in January of this year for inappropriate appearance Syrian girl beaten to death.

Kruger’s work also had a combat component: she headed a full-fledged educational institution in Kirkuk, Iraq, where student students were trained to become suicide bombers. Al-Baghdadi and German Kruger got married in October 2015; What caused the newlyweds’ discord is still unclear.

One of al-Baghdadi's most famous wives was Saja al-Dulaimi, nicknamed the "califessa" for her influence in the jihadist world. The marriage of al-Baghdadi and al-Duleimi was short-lived - it was concluded in 2009 and lasted only three months - but it brought considerable benefits to the caliphate.

After a divorce (Iraqi tribal customs make it quite easy to separate from a wife), she moved with her sister and father to Homs, Syria, where in March 2014 she was captured by troops friendly to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Soon, Jabhat al-Nusra militants exchanged her and 149 other women and children for 13 captured Greek Orthodox nuns.

Frame: Al Jazeera video

Sajja al-Dulaimi with children during an exchange for Lebanese soldiers.

“Our sister, the wife of Sheikh Abu Bakr, may Allah bless him, was freed by us. We did this because it was our duty,” one of the group’s “emirs” wrote on Twitter at the time. Abu Bakr himself did not comment on this event.

After her release from captivity, Sajja went with the refugees to Lebanon, but then repeatedly crossed the border of the two countries, hiding jewelry and money received from sponsors of terrorist groups under her burqa. Without hiding her face under a hijab, she publicly called on women from all over the world to go to IS, promising them faithful husbands and a decent life. Her image contrasted so much with the typical image of a disenfranchised woman in radical Islamist society that she was called an “honorary man.”

At the beginning of 2015, she was captured for the second time - the Lebanese authorities detained her with her small children (one of them, a five-year-old girl, is her daughter with Abu Bakr) while crossing the border. Al-Baghdadi again did not comment on this, and al-Duleimi and the child were again released by Jabhat al-Nusra militants: they and 12 other people were exchanged for captured Lebanese soldiers.

It is known that Abu Bakr also considered the captive American social worker Kayla Muller, captured in 2013, to be his “wife” and raped her until she died (according to the IS version, from an American airstrike, according to the US version, at the hands of). Along with Müller, there was a Yazidi girl in captivity who managed to escape from ISIS; according to her stories, Abu Bakr had three “official” wives at that time.

The price of a terrorist

The American authorities are promising $10 million for the head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: on the State Department website rewardsforjustice he is called by the pseudonym Abu Dua. Despite the fact that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is valued at almost twice as much in monetary terms, after the death of Osama bin Laden, it is the self-proclaimed caliph and leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr, who is considered today “terrorist number one.”

"Islamic State", "Al-Qaeda" and "Jabhat al-Nusra" are recognized as terrorist organizations and are banned in Russia.

Photo: Ropi / Zuma / Globallookpress.com

The future caliph Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri was born in the Iraqi city of Samarra, north of Baghdad, in 1971. Power in the country then belonged to the pan-Arab secularist left-wing Baath party.

Ibrahim's father, Awwad, was actively involved in the religious life of the community and taught at the local mosque. It was there that his son took his first steps as a theologian: he gathered the neighborhood boys, and they read the Koran together.

The Baathists did not actively encourage the spread of religion, but they did not fight it either. Some of Ibrahim's relatives even joined the ranks of the ruling party. Two of the future caliph's uncles worked in President Saddam Hussein's intelligence services; one of his brothers was an officer in Saddam's army, and another brother died in the Iraq-Iran war. Ibrahim himself was too young at the beginning of the conflict to take part in it.

Since 1993, the Iraqi leader began a “return to faith campaign”: nightclubs were closed in the country, public consumption of alcohol was prohibited, and Sharia rules were introduced to a limited extent (for example, hands were cut off for theft).

When the time came to decide on higher education, Ibrahim al-Badri tried to enter the Faculty of Law at Baghdad University, but his poor knowledge of English and unimportant grades let him down. As a result, he went to the Faculty of Theology, and then entered the University of Islamic Sciences, where he received a master's degree in qiraats (schools for public recitation of the Koran).

While studying for a master's degree, at the insistence of his uncle, Ibrahim joined the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood. This supranational Islamist organization advocated the creation of religious Islamic states, but in most countries its followers chose cautious tactics and did not support armed struggle with the authorities. Al-Badri such ideas seemed too soft - he called their followers people of words, not deeds, and the future caliph quickly joined the most radical members of the organization.

After receiving his master's degree in 2000, al-Badri settled in a small apartment in a poor area of ​​Baghdad, next to a mosque. In four years, he managed to change two wives and become the father of six children.

In 2004, al-Badri was arrested by the Americans - he went to visit a friend who was wanted. The future caliph ended up in the Camp Bucca filtration camp, where the occupation administration kept suspicious Iraqis. They were not prohibited from performing religious rituals, and the future caliph skillfully took advantage of this: he gave lectures on religion, conducted Friday prayers and gave instructions to the captives in accordance with his interpretation of Islam.

Prisoners said that Camp Bucca had become a veritable academy for jihadism. “Teach him, instill an ideology and show him the further path, so that at the time of liberation he becomes a blazing flame,” - this is how one of the former prisoners described the strategy of Islamic theologians inside the filtration camp in relation to each new arrival.

After his release, al-Badri contacted al-Qaeda in Iraq, who advised him to move to Damascus. In the Syrian capital, he had the opportunity, in addition to working for terrorists, to complete his dissertation. Then a conflict began in the ranks of the jihadists, which led to the transformation of the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda into the brutal Islamic State of Iraq. Al-Badri was appointed head of the religious direction in the Iraqi “provinces” of the organization. The caliphate did not have any territory at that time, so Ibrahim was mainly involved in developing a propaganda strategy and making sure that the militants strictly followed religious instructions.

In March 2007, he returned to Baghdad, where he defended his dissertation and became a doctor of Koranic studies. His scientific success attracted the attention of the then leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who made al-Badri head of the Sharia Committee - that is, responsible for all religious work of the terrorist organization.

In 2013, the group began participating in hostilities in Syria and changed its name to the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIS), and after the blitzkrieg of the summer of 2014, it shortened it to “Islamic State.” At the same time, Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri declared himself caliph, finally turning into Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The American authorities are promising $10 million for the head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: on the State Department website rewardsforjustice he is called by the pseudonym Abu Dua. Despite the fact that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri is valued at almost twice as much in monetary terms, after the death of Osama bin Laden, it is the self-proclaimed caliph and leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr, who is considered today “terrorist number one.”

On Sunday, June 11, British media reported that the leader of the IS group (banned in Russia) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi .

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The extremists have not yet confirmed the information through the Internet resources they control.

Previously, the media had repeatedly reported that the head of the Islamic State had been killed, but the information was not confirmed then.

AiF.ru talks about what is known about the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali Muhammad al-Badri al-Samarrai was born near the city of Samarra (Iraq) in 1971.

Religious education

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, al-Baghdadi's peers described him in his youth as "a modest, unimpressive, religious theologian, a man who shunned violence." For more than ten years, until 2004, he lived in a poor area on the western outskirts of Baghdad.

“He was quiet, shy and constantly spent time alone,” al-Baghdadi’s classmate told The Telegraph Ahmad Dabash- one of the founders and leaders of the Islamic Army of Iraq. - I personally knew every leader of the rebel underground, but I did not know Baghdadi. He was of no interest - he used to say prayers in the mosque, but no one noticed him.”

According to US and Iraqi intelligence analysts, al-Baghdadi has a doctorate in Islamic studies from a university in Baghdad. According to other information, he has a doctorate in education.

Passion for football

As al-Baghdadi's acquaintances say, the future leader of the Islamic State loved to play football. “He literally shone on the field, he was our Messi(player of the Argentine national football team and the Spanish Barcelona, ​​winner of four Golden Balls - approx. AiF.ru). He played better than anyone,” said a mosque parishioner in Mobchi, for whose national team the future leader of the Islamists played in his youth.

In prison

According to official data from the US Department of Defense, al-Baghdadi was detained in 2004 for preparing armed protests against the American contingent in the Arab republic. He was sent to the Bucca concentration camp and then taken to a camp near Baghdad. At the end of 2004 he was released.

In and out of al-Qaeda

In 2005, al-Baghdadi represented the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, banned in the Russian Federation, in the city of Al-Qaim in the western desert of Iraq on the border with Syria.

The cell led by al-Baghdadi was originally part of al-Qaeda, but was subsequently expelled due to conflict with the group's Syrian branch.

Negotiations with an American senator

In 2013, US Senator John McCain met in Idlib province (Syria) with the leaders of the so-called moderate Syrian opposition. Al-Baghdadi was also among them, as captured in many photographs and videos. Neither McCain nor al-Baghdadi deny this information.

"Islamic State"

In June 2014, the group gained worldwide fame by taking control of large parts of northern Iraq, including the country's second-largest city Mosul, within a month. On June 29, the creation of a “caliphate” led by al-Baghdadi in the territories of Syria and Iraq under his control was proclaimed. Al-Baghdadi himself proclaimed himself "caliph" under the name Ibrahim, and the Syrian city of Raqqa was declared the capital of the Islamic State. Al-Baghdadi, among other things, at that time claimed to be a descendant of the prophet Muhammad.

On July 5, 2014, al-Baghdadi made his first public speech during Friday prayers at a Mosul mosque, recorded on video and posted online, in which he called on all Muslims in the world to submit to him and join the group's jihad.

Report of injuries and death

On March 18, 2015, al-Baghdadi was seriously wounded as a result of a strike by Western coalition forces on a convoy of three vehicles on the border of Iraq and Syria; reports also said he died in a hospital in the Syrian city of Raqqa. After this, IS militants swore allegiance to the new “caliph” Abdurrahman Mustafa Al Sheikhlar, nicknamed Abu Ala al-Afri. According to a later report by The Guardian, al-Baghdadi survived but was paralyzed after being shot in the spine.

On December 7, Iranian media reported that the IS leader moved from Turkey, where he had been recently, to Libya to avoid persecution by Iraqi intelligence.

Reward for information on al-Baghdadi from the US State Department

In October 2011, the US State Department officially designated al-Baghdadi as a designated terrorist. Washington has announced a reward of $10 million for the head of the IS leader or for information leading to his capture or liquidation.

Leader of the terrorist organization Daesh (Islamic State, IS, ISIS - banned in Russia) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for the first time since 2014, he appeared on footage posted by IS media resources. A new video with the “caliph” was published on her Twitter page by the head of the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the activity of Islamist militants on the Internet. Rita Katz.

Previously, the portal Al Furqan, associated with ISIS, published on its Telegram channel a video recording with the participation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Reuters reported on April 29.

This is the second video featuring al-Baghdadi, the first was recorded at the Al-Nuri mosque in Mosul, Iraq at the end of June 2014, where the IS leader gave a sermon and announced the creation of a “caliphate.”

In the new recording, according to Reuters, a man with a beard (apparently dyed) similar to al-Baghdadi. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he gives instructions and talks about latest events, Reuters points out. Several people listen to him nearby, their faces are hidden in the video. The recording lasts 18 minutes. “Caliph” says that the battle in the Syrian city of Baghouz is over (the fighting there ended in March of this year; the liberation of the last enclave held by ISIS terrorists in eastern Syria was then announced by the Arab-Kurdish alliance “Syrian Democratic Forces”, supported by the American coalition). In the video, the "caliph" claims that IS will take revenge for the killings and imprisonment of its followers.

At the beginning of the recording, according to Reuters, it is indicated that it was filmed in April. However, the authenticity of this data, as well as the authenticity of the video itself, has not yet been confirmed.

The latest information about al-Baghdadi, who has been declared dead or died from his wounds and incurable diseases several times since 2014, dates back to September last year. Then information appeared that the most wanted terrorist in the world had died after being diagnosed with cancer a few months ago. A senior Iraqi security source was quoted as saying that recent months al-Baghdadi was paralyzed and died recently from “lung cancer.” The news of his death was allegedly not disclosed by the leadership of the Islamic State, since the search for a successor to the “caliph” continues within the terrorist organization. The source, who wished to remain anonymous, also noted that a fierce struggle had unfolded around taking the place of the IS leader who had departed to another world.

A month earlier, in August 2018, an audio recording was distributed on behalf of al-Baghdadi, with the help of which he called for the continuation of “jihad.” Then there was another message from the “caliph” in September, after the above information about his death.

According to Iraqi intelligence as of May last year, the ISIS leader was alive and hiding in desert areas in eastern Syria. In a conversation with the American television channel Fox News, the director of the intelligence and counter-terrorism department of the Iraqi Ministry of Internal Affairs Abu Ali al-Basri then reported the alleged place of refuge of the IS leader - the village of Hajin in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, located 30 km from the Iraqi border.

The son of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in Syria as a result of a rocket attack from Russian troops. This was reported by sources in Iraqi military intelligence in early July 2018. According to Iraqi intelligence services, on July 2, three rockets destroyed an IS command post in a cave in the Syrian province of Homs. There were about thirty “terrorist leaders” in it, among them the son of the “caliph” Hutaif al-Badri with his bodyguards.

The reward promised by the US authorities - $ 25 million - for information that will allow the capture or liquidation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi remains in force.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Real name: Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim al-Badri al-Husseini al-Samarrai, also known as Abu Dua.

Born in 1971 in the Iraqi city of Samarra (120 km north of Baghdad). He graduated from the University of Baghdad with a doctorate in history and Islamic law.

Until 2003, he was a preacher and teacher of Islamic law in the Diyala province in central Iraq.

Soon after the Western coalition invaded Iraq in 2003, al-Baghdadi joined the ranks of the rebels who began armed resistance against the foreign presence.

Later he joined the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda and by the fall of 2005 had gained fame as one of the most prominent leaders of this group. In particular, he was involved in transporting volunteers from Syria and Saudi Arabia to participate in the war against the Western coalition in Iraq.

In October 2005, an American plane struck a terrorist base near the Iraqi city of Al-Qaim on the border with Syria, where al-Baghdadi was allegedly hiding. However, his body was not found after the airstrike.

According to some sources, in 2005 he was captured during an operation by American troops in the rebel Sunni cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Samarra, and was held in an American camp for especially dangerous extremists, Camp Bocca in southern Iraq. According to some media reports, during his imprisonment, a meeting was organized between al-Baghdadi and American General David Petraeus (February 2007 - September 2008 - Commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq; 2010-2012 Director of the CIA). In 2009, al-Baghdadi was released along with other prisoners of the camp, which was closed under an agreement between the US administration of George W. Bush and the Iraqi government of al-Maliki. As some sources write, saying goodbye to the commander of the Camp Bocca security unit, American Colonel Kenneth King, al-Baghdadi said goodbye to him: “See you in New York, guys!”

According to other media citing the US Department of Defense, al-Baghdadi was placed in the camp as a “civilian internee” and was there from February to December 2004. The US Department of Defense does not provide any other information about his detention.

On May 16, 2010, he headed the terrorist organization "Islamic State of Iraq" (ISI) after the assassination of its leader Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (April 2010).

In 2011, with the outbreak of armed confrontation in Syria, al-Baghdadi sent there his assistant Adnan al-Haj Ali (better known as Abu Muhammad al-Jaulani), who formed and led the anti-government jihadist terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra there.

In October 2011, the US State Department announced a $10 million reward for any information leading to the capture and execution of al-Baghdadi. He was officially added to the US list of particularly dangerous terrorists.

Since April 9, 2013, he has been the leader of the terrorist jihadist group “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL), which united the Syrian “Jabhat al-Nusra” and the Iraqi “Islamic State of Iraq”.

In November 2013, a split occurred between the Iraqi and Syrian factions. Jabhat al-Nusra separated from ISIS and began to act independently again. Al-Baghdadi remained the leader of the ISIS group, with a total number of up to 15 thousand people, fighting both in Iraq and Syria.

In January 2014, under the leadership of al-Baghdadi, the Sunni cities of Fallujah and Ramadi were captured.

Since the beginning of June 2014, ISIS has been conducting an active offensive in Iraq with the goal of creating an Islamic caliphate in the Sunni provinces. ISIS managed to capture the cities of Mosul and Tikrit bordering Iraqi Kurdistan and took control of most of the provinces of Ninewa, Salah al-Din and Diyala. Currently, ISIS militants continue to advance from north to south towards Baghdad.

On June 29, 2014, ISIS decided to establish a quasi-state - the “Islamic Caliphate” and appoint Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as caliph (head of the caliphate). ISIS also decided to rename ISIS the “Islamic State” (a group banned in the Russian Federation - TASS note). The decisions were made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. In a special statement, the group called on Muslims around the world to recognize the creation of the caliphate, as well as to “swear allegiance to it (the “Islamic Caliphate”) and support it... The legitimacy of all emirates, groups, states and organizations is lost with the expansion of the powers of the caliph and the arrival of his troops on their territory."

The media call al-Baghdadi "the true heir of Osama bin Laden", he is known for his radicalism and cruelty. As a result of the terrorist activities of the group he led in Iraq, several thousand civilians were killed. More than 1,200 people have already died since June 10, 2014 alone. Al-Baghdadi is believed to be very cautious, covering his face even in the presence of his entourage. Al-Baghdadi proclaims himself the direct heir of the Prophet Muhammad.