The ISIS terrorist tapped as a possible leader after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been arrested in Iraq, according to state-run media.
“Today, the terrorist called Abdel Nasser Qardash, the candidate to succeed the criminal al-Baghdadi, has been arrested,” security services told the Iraqi News Agency (INA) on Wednesday, according to Egypt’s Sada El-Balad news.
Qardash was behind bars after an intelligence-led operation, with no further details given, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency also said.
Some reports suggested he had already been arrested in a previous raid in Syria, possibly involving US troops — and Wednesday’s announcement merely marked his transfer to Iraqi custody, Arab News noted.
Qardash was widely tipped to be the successor for ISIS ringleader al-Baghdadi, who blew himself up when US special forces pounced on his Syrian hideaway in October.
Qardash had been al-Baghdadi’s second-in-command and long groomed as a likely successor, according to numerous reports. Other reports say Abu Ibrahim Hashimi al-Quraishi was now in charge, with confusion over whether that was just a different name used by Qardash.
However, the US Department of State says Ameer Muhammed Saeed Al-Salbi Al-Mawla actually took controls, naming him a specially designated global terrorist (SDGT) in March.
“We have completely destroyed ISIS’s so-called ‘caliphate’ in Iraq and Syria, and we are taking the fight to its branches and networks around the world,” the department said of its “significant progress” at the time.