The Iraqi Intelligence Service announced on May 20 the arrest of Nasser al-Qirdash, a terrorist who was a former candidate to succeed the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. With his arrest, the Iraqi authorities could expose a treasure of information on the terror group’s new strategy.
In a brief statement on Wednesday, the intelligence agency said: “Today, the terrorist named Nasser al-Qirdash, the candidate to succeed the criminal al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, has been arrested.” In the aftermath of al-Baghdadi’s death, ISIS appointed Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi as the successor to al-Baghdadi, while al-Qirdash was appointed to the number two position.
According to a security analyst, al-Qirdash is a treasure trove of information for the Iraqi government – one that can clarify and identify a lot of key information for the Iraqi government on ISIS, including funding sources, intelligence, operations in foreign countries, and their internal management. The interrogation sessions with the ISIS leader could help Iraqi authorities extract as much information as possible on the group’s new strategy under the leadership of Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi.
