Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

On Sunday, October 27th, one of the most powerful leaders of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in an operation by the United States. I first read about the operation in this news article in the Associated Press: https://www.apnews.com/2c2c48e64f934d329c72a7af3dc284b1 The article talks about who al-Baghdadi was, he was one of the most powerful leaders of IS and has been the top leader for the past five years. He is responsible for the cultivation of the legacy of beheadings and the attacks in Europe. The United States started planning this operation several weeks ago, trying to find his location out from captured prisoners and others in the region. His whereabouts were found out by his brother-in-law, and then US troops were sent on the ground and eventually chased him into a tunnel where he detonated a suicide vest that he was wearing. This event is huge in international relations and counterterrorism. People do not know how detrimental this attack will be in trying to completely diminish ISIS, but without their leader, there are hopes that the group, that has been shrinking for a couple of years, will completely stop. The reason that I am writing this as a blog post is that ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is based on the goal of creating a pure Islamic State. I thought that this article is beneficial in the class discussion of how extremist groups affect the reputation of certain religious groups. Since the rise of ISIS, I believe that the Islamic religion has been seen as much more aggressive and is now associated with terrorism- which is not true.