Meet The Two Men Who Are The Driving Force Behind ISIS And The Destruction Of The Iraqi State

How Two Shadowy ISIL Commanders Designed Their Iraq Campaign -- Mitchell Prothero, L.A. Times/McClatchy

IRBIL, Iraq — The attack in Mosul wasn’t particularly surprising, according to Wameed, an Iraqi soldier who’d been assigned to the city’s main highway that night. It began June 9 with suicide bombers in cars and machine gun fire directed at checkpoints leading to the main thoroughfares of Iraq’s second largest city.

“Daash,” he said, using the derogatory Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, “and before that al-Qaida had always had a strong presence in Mosul and attacked checkpoints, or set bombs to hit patrols. They’d done these sorts of operations many times before, and we’d seen them do them in Samarra a month before and even in Abu Ghraib and Taji,” cities closer to Baghdad.

“Our commanders told us to stay in place and fight them off, that they were just trying for the prison or to make a big noise for the press,” he said.

The next day, however, the attacks continued, and Wameed and his fellow soldiers knew the commanders’ assessment had been wrong.

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My Comment: I have heard about Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his leadership role in ISIS for the past year .... so nothing new there. But this is the first time that I am reading about Hajj Bakr .... and his role in ISIS. I am usually on top of all of this .... but he is someone new to me .... which then tells me that we are all probably very ignorant on who and what ISIS is .... starting with me.

Update: ISIS Leader Al-Baghdadi Urges Jihad In Ramadan Message -- Reuters