Small Wars Journal

Trump Says America On the Hunt for Islamic State’s New Leader

Wed, 11/13/2019 - 12:16am

Trump Says America On the Hunt for Islamic State’s New Leader by Lolita C. Baldor – Associated Press

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that America now has its eye on a new Islamic State leader, telling the Economic Club of New York that “we know where he is.”

Trump didn’t mention the name of the new target, but he is likely referring to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the man who has been named to replace Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as head of the terror group. Al-Baghdadi took his own life last month as U.S. commandos closed in on him in northern Syria.

In a speech Tuesday, Trump said the U.S. got al-Baghdadi, then got "his second" and now, "we have our eye on his third. His third has got a lot of problems because we know where he is, too."

Little is publicly known about al-Qurayshi, and the group typically identifies its leaders using pseudonyms that refer to their tribal affiliation and lineage…

Read on.