Washington pledging more money for information about new ISIS caliph

The United States maintains its war on terrorism, amid plans for getting rid of all terror leaders.

Washington has pledged millions of dollars in rewards for those who can provide information about the new leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, Mohamed Saeed Abdurrahman al-Mawla, widely known as Abu Ibrahim al-Qurieshi.

In August 2019, the US State Department pledged $5 million in rewards for those who could provide information about the new ISIS leader. The department raised this to $10 million.

Al-Qurieshi took over the ISIS command after the killing of former ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.

The new ISIS leader committed numerous crimes, including kidnappings and manslaughter, especially of minorities in northwestern Iraq, the State Department said.

Al-Qurieshi was born in Iraq in 1976. He became a senior commander of ISIS and then an aide of al-Baghdadi, before taking over the command of the terrorist group after Baghdadi's death. In March this year, the US included al-Qurieshi in its terror list.

There has been an increase of ISIS attacks in cities liberated from the control of the terrorist organization in the past months.

Some observers believe that al-Qurieshi is seeking hiding in Iraq at present, given the country's porous security situation and the political unrest it suffers from.

However, the same possibility gives rise to fears that ISIS can regroup in Iraq.

After all, al-Qurieshi's presence in Iraq can uplift the morale of the sleeper cells of his terrorist organization, which can cause an ISIS resurgence in Iraq at the end, some people say.