Who Will Replace ISIS Leader Baghdadi? Trump Says No. 1 Replacement Also Dead

The top replacement for Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed, President Trump announced Tuesday.

The announcement comes two days after Trump announced Baghdadi was killed in a raid by U.S. troops in al Qaeda-controlled area of Syria.

“Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s No. 1 replacement has been terminated by American troops,” Trump tweeted. “Most likely would have taken the top spot. Now he is also dead!”

Trump did not release the name of the individual. Experts on Islamist groups regarded Iyad al-Obaidi and Ayad al-Jumaili as the leading contenders to assume Baghdadi’s title of “caliph.”

Obaidi is in his mid-50s and served as ISIS’ war minister. Jumaili is younger, in his 40s, and head of the group’s security agency. Both were part of the Sunni Salafist insurgency in Iraq in 2003.

"Jumaili recognizes Obaidi as his senior but there is no clear successor and, depending on conditions, it can be either of the two," Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises several Middle East governments on ISIS affairs, told Reuters.

Trump went into unusual detail in revealing the raid that killed Baghdadi Saturday night, describing video from the scene “as though you were watching a movie.”

Trump released details of how the Army Delta Force was inserted into the compound in Barisha in Idlib province, along with the route commandos took to get there.

“I always get a little bit nervous when people without knowledge of operations start describing operations,” Michael Nagata, a retired Army lieutenant general and former the senior special operations commander in the Middle East, told Politico. “It’s a good story, and I can understand the impulse to tell a good story. Telling it can have positive benefits. But the benefits are unpredictable and marginal, whereas the harm could be more substantial."

A second Pentagon official Tuesday cast doubt on Trump’s version of how Baghdadi died, saying he had not heard the same reports.

At a news conference Sunday, Trump described how the terrorist leader was cornered.

“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said. Baghdadi exploded a suicide vest, killing himself and three of his children.

Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Gen. Mark Milley told reporters he had not heard the same description. He said he assumed Trump got his information from those who conducted the operation.

“I know the president had planned to talk down to the unit and unit members,” Milley said. “But I don’t know what the source of that was. I assume it was talking directly to unit and unit members.”

Earlier, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he did not have the same details.