Mild and humid Friday morning ahead of a hot afternoonIsrael targets air defense system in Syria, state news agency says
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is displayed on a monitor as U.S. Central Command Commander Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie speaks at a joint press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2019, on the Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi raid. (ANDREW HARNIK / AP) ISIS is mourning the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and has announced a successor in a new audio release. The group identified the new leader as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi in the audio released Thursday by the ISIS central media arm, al-Furqan Foundation. The speaker in the audio also confirmed the death of Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, a close aide of al-Baghdadi and a spokesman for the group. On Tuesday, President Trump said al-Muhajir has been “terminated by American troops.” Al-Muhajir was killed in a joint U.S. operation with Kurdish forces in Jarablus, in northern Syria on Sunday, hours after al-Baghdadi blew himself up during a U.S. raid in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province. The speaker named Abu Hamza al-Qurashi urged followers to pledge allegiance to the new Caliph and addressed the Americans saying: “Don’t rejoice.” On Wednesday, General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, released declassified images and video from the raid that resulted in al-Baghdadi’s death. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) shared video on Twitter that showed fighters near the compound beginning to fire on U.S. aircraft participating in the raid. Al-Baghdadi’s remains were “buried at sea in accordance with the Law of Armed conflict within 24 hours of his death,” according to CENTCOM.