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| - Fact Check: Predecessor al-Baghdadi's photo shared as dead IS chief Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi
A photo is being widely circulated on social media with the claim that it shows Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi near the compound raided by US security forces in northern Syria on February 2.
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India Today Fact Check
The man in the picture is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi -- the former chief of the Islamic State who was neutralised in 2019. It was after Baghdadi's fall that al-Qurayshi became the numero uno of the Islamic State.
On January 20, militants of the Islamic State attacked Ghwaryan prison, which reportedly housed more than 3,000 of their comrades. The attack triggered a retaliation. The international coalition-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took 11 days to complete their counter-operation and regain control. The operation reportedly claimed the lives of 121 SDF personnel and four civilians along with that of 374 IS fighters.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed during a raid by US forces on a house in northern Syria on Wednesday, February 2. Reportedly, al-Qurayshi, who was named the leader of ISIL shortly after his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death in 2019, blew himself up during the raid, killing members of his own family.
Following the announcement of his death, Twitter was abuzz with information on the Islamic State leader. Several people shared images of the raided building along with alleged images of al-Qurayshi. Among these is a close-up photo of a bearded middle-aged man donning a jacket and headscarf.
"Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi killed in Syria -- US", one such tweet read.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the image to be misleading. The man in the picture is in fact al-Baghdadi -- al-Qurayshi's predecessor.
AFWA Probe
Also called Abdullah Qardash and Amir Mohammed Said Abdul Rahman al-Mawla, al-Qurayshi was with his family on the second floor of a three-storey residential building in Atmeh, Syria when the US forces struck. As per reports, US officials said the military chose to conduct a raid with troops instead of bombing the compound to minimise harm to the family that lived on the first floor. However, the Islamic State leader blew himself up, along with his family as the US troops zeroed in on his location.
The US had offered a $10 million reward for any information about 46-year-old al-Qurayshi, reports state. We noticed that the image on the bounty poster looked different from that of the image shared by many after his death. Many reliable media outlets also used the same image of a bald, clean-shaved man while reporting the elimination of the militant chief.
Following this clue, we ran a reverse search on the image in question. The results were all related to the Islamist outfit but most dated back to 2019. Among the top results was a CNBC report published on October 27, 2019, about the then-US President Donald Trump confirming the death of the Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. We found the photo of Baghdadi inside the story that looked similar to the image shared now as al-Qurayshi.
Further searches revealed the same photo was used by multiple media organisations for al-Baghdadi. Days after his death, al-Qurayshi was declared the new premiere of the "Caliphate".
Most of these articles credited agencies like AFP and Getty Images as sources. We searched al-Baghdadi's name on these websites and found the same photo. "In this undated handout image provided by the Department of Defence, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is seen in an unspecified location," a part of the photo's caption on Getty Images reads. The photo was dated 'Unspecified".
AFP was more informative. "The elusive chief of the IS group al-Baghdadi has appeared for the first time in five years in a propaganda video released on April 29 by the jihadist organisation. It is unclear when the footage was filmed, but Baghdadi referred in the past tense to the months-long fight for Baghouz, IS's final bastion in eastern Syria, which ended last month," the caption read.
Interestingly, Baghdadi, 48 at the time of his demise, also killed himself by means of an explosive vest like his successor to avoid capture by US Special Forces.
Hence, it is clear that the image used by many people as that of killed Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi is that of his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
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