After killing of ISIS leader: Jabbar al-Issawi most prominent candidate to succeed

After US President Joe Biden officially announced the killing of ISIS leader Amir Mohammed Saeed Abdul-Rahman al-Mawla in an airstrike in a Syrian region located between the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, the most prominent question has become who will be the possible successor to lead the terrorist organization.

Jabbar Salman al-Issawi, known as Abu Yasser, is considered the most prominent candidate to lead the organization. He was born in 1982 and hails from the city of Fallujah in the Iraqi governorate of Anbar. He belongs to the Arab Albu Issa tribe, which is located in Anbar and its countryside.

In addition, Issawi was among the first generation who joined al-Qaeda in 2006. He had pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and participated in the second battle of Fallujah, but he did not announce his allegiance to late ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Issawi is considered one of the prominent field leaders who could take over the leadership of ISIS, and he had previously trained in making improvised explosive devices and how to plant and detonate them at the hands of Ali Ismail al-Kuwaiti.

Although there were reports of the killing of Issawi years ago, several news reports state that this is not true and that he remains active in the ranks of the organization, although he is very careful not to appear on the organization’s media platforms.

The US special operations forces carried out what the Pentagon described as a successful counterterrorism mission in northwest Syria in the early hours of Thursday morning, February 3, when they targeted a person believed to be a prominent terrorist leader, but rescue workers said women and children were among at least 13 people killed during the strike.

“At my direction, US military forces in northwest Syria have successfully conducted a counterterrorism operation to protect the American people and our allies and make the world a safer place,” Biden said in a statement, adding, “Thanks to the skill and courage of our armed forces, we have removed the leader of ISIS from the battlefield.”