ISIS Leader a Product of Zarqawi and US Detention

[unhappycamper]

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/russ-wellen/57587/isis-leader-a-product-of-zarqawi-and-us-detention

ISIS Leader a Product of Zarqawi and US Detention
Iraq
by Russ Wellen | August 13, 2014 - 7:31am

In 2004, current Islamic State in Iraq and Syria leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a member of uber-thug Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (then also known as Al Qaeda in Iraq). He was picked up in a U.S. raid on a home in Fallujah and detained in U.S-run Camp Bucca in Iraq for five years. In the New York Times, Tim Arango and Eric Schmitt report:

The American operation that killed Mr. Zarqawi in 2006 was a huge blow to the organization’s leadership. But it was years later that Mr. Baghdadi got his chance to take the reins.

As the Americans were winding down their war in Iraq, they focused on trying to wipe out Al Qaeda in Iraq’s remaining leadership. In April 2010, a joint operation by Iraqi and American forces made the biggest strike against the group in years, killing its top two figures near Tikrit.

A month later, the group issued a statement announcing new leadership, and Mr. Baghdadi was at the top of the list.