BAGHDAD — As fighters for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria continue
to seize territory, the group has quietly built an effective management
structure of mostly middle-aged Iraqis overseeing departments of finance,
arms, local governance, military operations and recruitment.
At the top the organization is the self-declared leader of all Muslims,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a radical chief executive officer of sorts, who
handpicked many of his deputies from among the men he met while a
prisoner in American custody at the Camp Bucca detention center a
decade ago.
He had a preference for military men, and so his leadership team
includes many officers from Saddam Hussein’s long-disbanded army.
They include former Iraqi officers like Fadel al-Hayali, the top deputy
for Iraq, who once served Mr. Hussein as a lieutenant colonel, and Adnan
al-Sweidawi, a former lieutenant colonel who now heads the group’s
military council.
Bookmarks