Baghdad: By rights, the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi should have been met with celebrations in the land of his birth. After all, Iraq has endured more suffering than any other nation – and bears more scars – from the depredations of Islamic State.
Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi should have been the one to share with his countrymen the news from Barisha, Syria, that the monster of their worst nightmares is no more.
Instead, at Baghdadi’s death, Abdul-Mahdi was hunkered down in his palace while his countrymen called, in ever larger numbers, for his ousting. The city from which the slain Islamic State’s leader took his nom de guerre was convulsed in yet another night of violence, as security forces and Iran-backed militias cracked down on Iraqis protesting against corruption and misrule.
When Baghdad should have been celebrating the ignominious end of the false caliph, authorities were announcing a curfew.
Baghdadi would have derived some comfort in the last few days among the living from the turmoil engulfing his homeland. After the calm that briefly followed the extirpation of Islamic State at the end of 2017, Iraq was once again experiencing conditions most propitious for the terrorist organisation’s regeneration under his successor.
In many ways, the country is in even greater chaos than in the spring and summer of 2014, when Islamic State stormed the western and northern provinces, taking city after city while the Iraqi state crumbled. Then, Iraq was a deeply corrupt state with an inept military, its society riven with sectarian hatreds. Islamic State was able to capitalise on the resentment of the minority Sunni sect.
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See Also:
(1) The humble three-wheeled tuk-tuk has become the symbol of Iraq’s uprising
(3) Soleimani takes helm of Iraqi security from prime minister Abdul-Mahdi
