Small Wars Journal

Military Skill and Terrorist Technique Fuel Success of ISIS

Thu, 08/28/2014 - 8:41am

Military Skill and Terrorist Technique Fuel Success of ISIS by Ben Hubbard and Eric Schmitt, New York Times

As fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria continue to seize territory, the group has quietly built an effective management structure of mostly middle-aged Iraqis overseeing departments of finance, arms, local governance, military operations and recruitment.

At the top the organization is the self-declared leader of all Muslims, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a radical chief executive officer of sorts, who handpicked many of his deputies from among the men he met while a prisoner in American custody at the Camp Bucca detention center a decade ago.

He had a preference for military men, and so his leadership team includes many officers from Saddam Hussein’s long-disbanded army…

Read on.