Death of IS chief death Baghdadi may not make the militants any less menacing
The Rand Corporation says such strikes against the heads of terror groups can be counterproductive, given the potential to strengthen their resolve and encourage retaliatory attacks
28 October 2019 - 18:11
London — When Donald Trump announced the killing of the leader of Islamic State (IS) on Sunday in a US operation, he hailed it as an immediate change to global security. The death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the US president said, had brought a brutal killer to justice and would make the world “a much safer place”.
Baghdadi’s death was undoubtedly a symbolic blow for a once-potent terror group which is losing its power, analysts said: earlier in 2019, IS surrendered the final portion of its self-proclaimed caliphate, a sliver of territory in north-eastern Syria, to US-backed forces.
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