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Iraq claims capture of key Daesh leader

Baghdad - Qardash is one of the most important leaders of Daesh, but the group later chose Abdul-Rahman Al Mawla to succeed Al Baghdadi.

The Iraqi National Intelligence Service (INIS) announced that it has arrested a key leader of the Daesh terror group.

"The terrorist named Abdul-Nasser Qardash, a former candidate to succeed the late Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, has been arrested," INIS said in a statement on Wednesday on its official Twitter account.

The statement gave no further details about the location of the arrest or whether there were others captured with him, reports Xinhua news agency.

Qardash is one of the most important leaders of Daesh, but the group later chose Abdul-Rahman Al Mawla to succeed Al Baghdadi.

In October 2019, US President Donald Trump announced that the US Special Operations Forces conducted an overnight raid targeting al-Baghdadi in northwestern Syria, during which the Daesh leaderi killed himself by igniting a suicide vest.

Al Baghdadi, 48, whose real name is Ibrahim Awad al-Badri, announced the establishment of a caliphate, or the so-called Daesh, in June 2014.

His militant group once captured large swathes of land in western and northern Iraq as well as parts of neighbouring Syria, but was later defeated in both countries.