Mawla the 'Destroyer', brutal new head of IS groupIS fighters have carried out an attack every three days on average in Syria in recent months, according to the Centre for Global PolicyPARIS - With monikers as divergent as the "Professor" and the "Destroyer", the Islamic State group's new head has a reputation for brutality, but otherwise remains largely an enigma. Mawla was initially presented to the world by the Islamic State (IS) as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi -- a man about whom America and Iraq had little intelligence. US officials later came to believe that al-Qurashi was Mawla's nom de guerre, recognising him in March as the new head of IS. In 2004, Mawla was detained by US forces at the Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, where he met Baghdadi. A profile drawn up by the CEP said that Mawla "quickly established himself among the insurgency's senior ranks, and was nicknamed the 'Professor' and the 'Destroyer'".

Source: Bangkok Post July 21, 2020 03:00 UTC