Near midnight in the Syrian town of Atmeh, near the border with Turkey, the life and adventure of ISIS leader Abdullah Qardash came to an end. The Iraqi Turkman, whose real name was Amir Muhammad Saeed Abd al-Rahman Muhammad al-Mawlam, claimed to be a descendant of the Bani Hashim of Quraysh.

An American raid by combat helicopter and heavy gunfire culminated, according to the official version, in Qardash setting off a bomb that killed him and three women with him, possibly his wives, as well as others.

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

This man was one of the most dangerous theorists of ISIS “savagery”. His exploits include the massacre and enslavement of Yazidis and the killing of those whose loyalty to ISIS he deems to be lacking. His death came a week after his predecessor, Ibrahim Awad, who bore the nickname Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was also killed by an American raid.

Amir Muhammad al-Mawla, of Iraqi-Turkmen descent, born in 1976, represented evil and darkness, tarnishing the image of basic humanity as well as Islam.

He joined ISIS predecessor "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" in March 2007 and worked as a Shari'a teacher, judge and deputy governor of Mosul in the "Al-Qaeda in Iraq" organization.

He also held the position of deputy emir of ISIS from August 2017 until the death of al-Baghdadi, oversaw the organization's daily operations, and maintained close contact with other senior ISIS leaders.

Interestingly, Qardash aka Amir al-Mawla aka Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi was previously arrested by US forces in Iraq in January 2008, like other leaders of Iraqi Sunni and Shiite terrorism, and then released, to do what he went on to do.

This sequence, going from US prisons in Iraq to the most important leaders of the terrorist groups that were active in Iraq and Syria, have led some to believe in a deliberate conspiracy by the Americans to release these bad guys to prevent the establishment of a strong Iraq or a strong Syria. What these conspiracy theorists missed is that a number of Iraqi politicians today, for example, those who were involved in the political project and its origins were also residents of Kober prisons and others, so is this also an American conspiracy?

God knows best about the inner realities. What we can see is the outward, and the apparent meaning here is that these are actual members, intellectually, politically and psychologically, in takfiri thought, killing and violence, and this is a broad current that has not, and will not, end.

However, we must talk about political positions, let us not neglect the Iranian side, I mean the Revolutionary Guard and its relations, which are no longer a secret, with the leaders of al-Qaeda from Saif al-Adl to the sons of Osama bin Laden, primarily Hamza, and many others. It is also noteworthy, as the authorities of the Al-Raqqa and Al-Hasakah region the mixed Kurdish-Arab forces warned, that the recently killed ISIS leader met his demise while he was 200 meters from the headquarters of the Turkish forces!

This article was originally published in, and translated from, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Read more:

ISIS is moving, and not as a zombie: ‘mowing the grass’ is far from over

The alleged end of the ‘Islamic Awakening,’ and the exceptional case of ISIS

ISIS rebirth