Death of Isil propaganda chief 'could see decline in attacks on West'

Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called for lone wolf attacks in the West
Abu Mohammad al-Adnani called for lone wolf attacks in the West Credit: Dabiq

Islamic State's ability to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe will be damaged by the death of the group's deputy leader, experts say. 

Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, killed this week in a US air strike near al-Bab in Aleppo province, was the principal architect of Isil's global terrorism operations.

One of the last survivors of the al-Qaeda militants who originally formed Islamic State last decade in Iraq, Adnani’s death is the single-biggest setback for Isil since it began its blitzkrieg across the Middle East. 

He orchestrated a number of high-profile attacks over the past year, including in Paris, at the Brussels and Istanbul airports, at a cafe in Bangladesh, as well as the downing of a Russian airliner in the Sinai and suicide bombings at a rally in Ankara.

Adnani, one of the most prominent Isil leaders Credit: Al-Nabaa

His call to arms to followers ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan inspired a further spate of attacks across Europe in June.  

“If you are not able to find a bomb or a bullet, then smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car,” he said, instructing lone wolves to kill using all means possible.

A few weeks later Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a truck into a crowd along a promenade in Nice, France, killing 86 people.

Adnani, who announced the formation of the so-called caliphate in 2014, was in a charge of a vast network of secretive operatives known as the Emni.

Jailed German Isil defector Harry Sargo, who has knowledge of Emni’s inner workings, described Adnani as “the big man behind everything”: personally accepting pledges of allegiance from foreign recruits, planning attacks abroad, and leading Isil’s propaganda unit. 

He is even said to have chaired monthly meetings where he decided which of Isil’s barbaric videos to disseminate as part of its efforts to bring in more jihadists.

A rare photo of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Credit: AP

Analysts predicted his death could hinder the group’s ability to direct attacks in the West, in the short term at least. 

“We can hope for a small respite as the internal reorganisation takes place,” Kyle Orton at the Henry Jackson Society think tank, told the Telegraph. “We’ll see some kind of power struggle over Adnani’s various roles that buys us some time and perhaps does some institutional damage to the cohesiveness of the caliphate.”

Colin Clarke, lecturer on terrorism at Carnegie Mellon University, said it would not be easy to find a successor. 

“Removing Adnani from chain of command might slow down Isil operational tempo in terms of external attacks while group tries to replace him,” he said. "Replacing him will be hard. He had logistical and comms expertise which isn't easily replicated but learned through tacit knowledge transfer."

Adnani, whose real name is Taha Sobhi Falaha, was born in 1977 in the western Syrian province of Idlib and worked as a mason. 

He was from a well-to-do family but he left Syria to travel to Iraq to fight US forces there after its 2003 invasion.

He was recruited by Jordanian zealot Abu Musab Zarqawi, who pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and formed what became known as al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

Around 2005 Adnani was thought to have been arrested and spent some fives years incarcerated at the US detention facility Camp Bucca, where he met Baghdadi.

The two had always foreseen that the jihadist struggle would spill over into neighbouring Syria and would eventually culminate in a "war to end all wars" in Dabiq, a northern Syrian town Adnani named Isil’s monthly magazine after. 

According to one reading of Prophet Muhammad's teachings, is the place the Muslim and Christian armies will finally face each other and the Crusaders will be destroyed. 

But Zarqawi wanted AQI to leave the holy war in Syria to its Syrian offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.

Adnani disavowed Zarqawi, and alongside a cadre of former Baathist officers, went on to found what is now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Years of fighting and targeted air strikes means there are now only three of the 43 founding members left: thought to be Baghdadi, Abu Muhammad al-Shamali, the Iraqi-born head of immigration who facilitated the entry of foreign fighters across the Turkish border, and Iyad al-Jumayli, a Fallujah native who serves as internal security chief.