IS leader al-Baghdadi resurfaces

A first video appearance in five years by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State and the world’s most wanted man, has ended speculation that he was killed some years ago


1971: Born Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri in Samarra, Iraq. Grows up in religious family, studies
Islamic theology in Baghdad

2003: Joins emerging insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) following U.S.-led invasion of Iraq

2005: Captured by U.S. forces in Iraqi city of Fallujah and held at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca detention facilities. Released after 10 months

2010: Emerges as leader of Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) – formed in 2006 as successor to AQI – after
group’s top two commanders are killed in U.S.-led airstrike

2011-13: Fighters loyal to Baghdadi cross into Syria to exploit power vacuum created by civil war.
ISI becomes Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham/the Levant (ISIS/ISIL)

2014: Baghdadi renames group Islamic State (IS) and proclaims “caliphate” after capture of Iraq’s
second largest city, Mosul

2016: Mounting military pressure begins to roll back IS territorial gains

2017: Fall of Mosul and Raqqa strongholds turns Baghdadi into fugitive thought to be hiding out in desert between Iraq and Syria

Mar 2019: IS loses village of Baghuz – last toehold in region

Apr 29: Baghdadi reappears in propaganda video, claiming that Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka were “part of revenge” that awaits West for loss of last IS territory


Maximum extent of territory held by IS from 2014

TURKEY
SYRIA
LEB.
Damascus
Raqqa
Baghuz
IRAQ
Fallujah
Baghdad
Samarra
Mosul

100km 60 miles


Sources: IHS Conflict Monitor, BBC 
Pictures: AP, U.S. Department of Justice 
© GRAPHIC NEWS