'Al Baghdadi is dead. But the story doesn't end here': How global media covered IS leader's death

'Al Baghdadi is dead. But the story doesn't end here': How global media covered IS leader's death
Photo: Onmanorama

On Sunday, United States' President Donald Trump announced that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a raid by the US Special Forces in northwest Syria.

Onmanorama has culled interesting stories published by The New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, Independent, CNN and The National.

Click the link to access the stories and videos on the respective websites.

In this video, BBC's Frank Gardner explains the future of IS after Baghdadi's death

He says: "Baghadai symbolised the leadership of the IS. He established self-proclaimed Caliphate in 2014. Around eight million people were under its control at one point.

There is no question this us a big blow for ISIS. But it is not the end of ISIS. He will probably be replaced. The factors that propelled ISIS to its lightning successes in 2014 and 2013 are still there. It comes down to bad governance and those environments ISIS can flourish still. It is not mission accomplished. ISIS is still there. It got sleeper cells. It's got followers. It's got weapons, ammunition, bomb-making equipment and it will carry on with the attacks."

"Al Baghdadi is dead. The story doesn't end here." Opinion columnist Thomas L Friedman argues in The New York Times.

He writes: “As for the future of the Middle East, let’s not forget that ISIS was the Sunni Muslim jihadist organization that emerged after President Barack Obama’s administration eliminated the previous holder of the worst-person-in-the-world title, Osama bin Laden. But al-Baghdadi’s death — a very good thing in and of itself — is not the end of our troubles in and from the Middle East."

Al-Baghdadi raid was a victory built on factors Trump derides, David E Sanger writes in The New York Times.

From the piece: "The death of the Islamic State’s leader in a daring nighttime raid vindicated the value of three traditional American strengths: robust alliances, faith in intelligence agencies and the projection of military power around the world.

But President Trump has regularly derided the first two. And even as he claimed a significant national security victory on Sunday, the outcome of the raid did little to quell doubts about the wisdom of his push to reduce the United States military presence in Syria at a time when terrorist threats continue to develop in the region."

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's death comes as new order takes shape in Middle East, writes The Guardian's Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov.

From the story: "A new regional order is taking shape that underpins the tremendous chaos Isis has caused. New areas of influence are being demarcated and there is now a real chance that some of the region’s post-second world war borders could be redrawn along ethnic sectarian lines.

In Syria’s volatile east, large restive populations of Isis detainees remain interned were, for the past six months, they have been able to reorganise. The new Isis camps are bigger and more combustible than the US versions in southern Iraq, where Baghdadi earned his stripes as a future leader during a nine-month stint in 2004. Back then, he was able to convince his captors that he was a stabilising influence, and they let him go. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was anything but. He lived and died as one of the savage and influential figures of modern times."

Patrick Cockburn's analysis in The Independent: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was a brutal tyrant but he had no real answer to the crumbling of his caliphate.

"He was repeatedly reported to be dead or injured but would re-emerge, most recently in a video this April. Isis was reverting to a guerrilla role, hoping to repeat its extraordinary resurrection between 2011 and 2014. But the fear that Isis had inspired at the height of its success meant that governments were unlikely to be caught by surprise a second time. It also seemed inevitable, once Isis had lost its last territory earlier this year, that Baghdadi could not evade his pursuers forever."

Who was the Isis leader and why is his death important?: Conrad Duncan explains in The Independent

Editorial of The National, an English Newspaper published from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, said that ISIS did not die with Al Baghdadi.

"Hundreds of thousands of indoctrinated followers, many of them foreign fighters, still dwell in camps in the region and pose a threat of reforming and regrouping. Al Baghdadi might be gone but there will undoubtedly be an equally evil and depraved killer, waiting in the wings to replace him. It would be wrong to think his death signals the end of ISIS. Just as ISIS was born of another extremist group, so its dying embers will undoubtedly ignite another lethal threat, so long as the underlying causes that led to its rise are not addressed," read the editorial.

CNN's Editor-at-large Chris Cillizza analyses the 41 most shocking lines from Donald Trump's Baghdadi announcement

Here is a sample:

"Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. But at my direction, as commander-in-chief of the United States, we obliterated his caliphate 100% in March of this year."

“Analysis: It's not at all clear that 100% of the ISIS caliphate has been defeated -- or if that is even possible or what it would look like.”

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