Director of the National Counterterrorism Center: Islamic State Will Replace Slain Leader by Eric Tucker – Associated Press
A U.S. counterterrorism official said Wednesday he expects a new Islamic State leader to emerge after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and warned that the extremist group’s planning of major attacks probably will go on as before.
“The ideology continues, the resonance continues, and that is a strategic concern for us,” Russell Travers, the acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said at a congressional hearing on global threats.
Travers said the killing of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi by U.S. forces in Syria on Saturday was a “significant” development. But he said that ISIS, which once controlled a large swath of Iraq and Syria, has a “deep bench” of figures who could replace al-Baghdadi…