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NYT: Will Bahraini “Turki Al-Binali” Succeed “Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani” (Mastermind of ISIS Attacks on West)?

2016-09-06 - 8:17 p

Bahrain Mirror- Exclusive: The News York Times published an article dwelling on the death of ISIS member Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani, who was killed in an American drone strike in northern Syria late last month August.

The newspaper mentioned that Al-Adnani's heir might be Turki Al-Binali from Bahrain. "In the coming days, Mr. Baghdadi is likely to meet with his Shura (council of advisers) in Raqqa, the group's self-proclaimed capital in Syria, to pick a replacement for Mr. Adnani, a 39-year-old Syrian, who had been believed to be Mr. Baghdadi's heir apparent," according to New York Times.

It further noted that among "the candidates to replace Mr. Adnani is Turki al-Binali, 31, one of the most senior clerics of the Islamic State, who is believed to have been appointed the group's chief mufti."

On further account about Binali, the New York Times said he is considered a prodigy who studied under some of the top leaders in the jihadi pantheon, including Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi, who is regarded as one of the most influential Al Qaeda ideologues.

With reference to how his "career in ISIS" started, the newspaper said that as early as 2013, Binali is believed to have traveled to Syria to join ISIS, and he first began producing some of the group's most influential theological treatises, which believed to have laid the foundation for the group's future actions.

On his part, Cole Bunzel, doctoral candidate at Princeton and researcher at Brookings Institution who wrote a paper on the ideology of "the Islamic State", said that what is even more important about Binali, "is that he is an extremely talented speaker, orator - kind of like Adnani".

Mr. Bunzel also asserted that the concept of territorial control was believed by many to be a prerequisite for a caliphate. He said that Mr. Binali's essay served to clear the way for the declaration of the caliphate months after he joined them in the summer of 2014.

According to Mr. Bunzel, it is suspected that Mr. Binali was the member who headed the Islamic State's Research and Fatwa Department, whose role was to "issue pamphlets explaining the legality of raping enslaved Yazidi women."

Moreover, United States intelligence officials suspected that Mr. Binali might have traveled recently to Libya recently to help the ISIS franchise there.

Speaking with New York Time, Mr. Laith Al-khouri, a director at New York-based Flashpoint, a business risk intelligence company that tracks militant and cyber threats, said that "while Mr. Binali is certainly a contender for a greater leadership role, he may have been marginalized in recent months."

On this level, Mr. Al-khouri said another candidate could be Abu Luqman, who is also known as "Ali Mousa Al-Shawwakh", who was a first ruler in Raqqa, and had led many ISIS strategies in Aleppo in 2015. Alkhouri said Abu Luqman might fit the criteria that ISIS requires to have in its spokesman. He has a law degree, and has worked as a recruiter for the forerunner of ISIS during the United States occupation of Iraq, the newspaper added.

Many media reports on various outlets spoke about Al-Adnani's death, indicating various means; from aerial strikes to being stabbed, yet the news of his death has not yet been confirmed.

It is worth mentioning that Abu Muhammad al-Adnani is the third prominent ISIS member to be killed after Abu Oman Al-Shishani, and Abu Alaa al-Anbari.

Al-Adnani was considered the engineer of attacks that targeted many Western countries, according to the US Department of Defense, which announced that a drone targeted Al-Adnani in North Aleppo.

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