OCTOBER 27, 2019
SOMEWHERE IN SYRIA
EVENING
US intelligence presses its advantage against ISIS. But there is someone looking over the shoulder of the Americans.
Six thousand miles from Washington, on the night of World Series Game 5, the next potential leader of ISIS rides inside an empty gasoline tanker truck. He is mourning the death of al-Baghdadi, but there is nothing that can be done. The Islamic State must carry on.
The wheels of transition are already in motion. In accordance with the Koran, a group known as the Majlis-ash-Shura—or simply the Shura Council—will soon gather in a secret location to vote for a new ISIS leader. These men are advisers to the caliph. The size of the group varies, but right now the council numbers almost thirty. They consider themselves deeply religious but also hyperpolitical, with many former members of the Baath Party, dedicated to unifying the Middle East into a single Islamic state. And like al-Baghdadi, a number of these men were held in US custody at a prison known as Camp Bucca during the American invasion of Iraq.
The man riding in the tanker is confident he will be chosen to lead the militant group.
Abu Hassan al-Muhajir has been the official ISIS spokesman for the last five years. He has risen through the ranks, devoting his life to the cause. Al-Baghdadi was a friend and mentor to him, and it is from the departed terrorist that al-Muhajir learned how to rule. Above all, al-Baghdadi was adept at demanding loyalty from the many factions within the Islamic State. Al-Mujahir must do the same.
Like the deceased al-Baghdadi, the spokesman is never seen in public. Very little is known about him, not even his age. His name is adopted, meaning “the immigrant,” leading some to believe he was born in Saudi Arabia—which is, in fact, true. He never allows his photograph to be taken, nor has he appeared in an ISIS video. He is scornful of the internet theories saying he was born in Texas and studied at a music conservatory in Italy.
What is known about al-Muhajir is that he is a hard-core terrorist. As the mouthpiece for ISIS, he released audio statements celebrating heinous torture and murder. When President Trump visited Al-Asad Air Base in Iraq last Christmas, but left quickly due to security issues, it was al-Muhajir who mocked the president’s hasty departure.
“How strange for a victor who can’t even announce publicly an official visit to a country he claims to be bringing peace and stability to. He could only come like a frightened and cowardly thief,” al-Mujahir said.
In his latest speech on an ISIS website, delivered after fifty Muslims were murdered by a white supremacist in a New Zealand mosque, al-Mujahir closed with a warning about the use of electronic devices. If ISIS’s practice of killing is to continue, the group must avoid surveillance.
But the truth is, the internet is vital to the ISIS jihad. More than forty thousand young men and women from at least ninety nations have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State. Many are Middle Eastern, but a large number arrived from Europe, Australia, Russia, and the United States. Almost all come from politically stable nations with low unemployment and a high level of economic development, so it is not poverty that is driving ISIS recruitment. It is simply a powerful desire to wage war in the name of religion.*
The average candidate is a twenty-six-year-old male who has been inspired by violent ISIS social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube. Recruiting websites often show videos of the three hundred beheadings that have taken place since ISIS assumed control of Iraq and Syria, as well as documentaries about life inside the Islamic State.
But while this manipulation of the worldwide Muslim population requires a high level of technological savvy, ISIS leaders like Abu Hassan al-Muhajir never know when some intelligence analyst will track their cell phones. So caution is the word.
The rolling claustrophobic cylinder smells of benzene and is completely dark. To avoid suspicion, hatches and valves are all closed tight, leaving just small ventilation holes to let in fresh air. The paved road is smooth but al-Muhajir can feel every bump, for there is no padding and no place to sit. He must simply lean against the metal walls. But the potential ISIS leader is not complaining. Better discomfort than extinction.
There are very few men within ISIS leadership who share al-Muhajir’s Saudi Arabian heritage. So he is quite familiar with the Arab who guided US Special Forces to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s compound. They know each other by name. But the spokesman does not know that his colleague has betrayed the jihad. And he is completely unaware that this betrayal has led to him being monitored on this lonely highway tonight.
The road passes the ancient city of Aleppo, a three-hour drive from where al-Baghdadi died yesterday. The phony gas truck follows a small pickup down a two-lane desert road. Night is coming. Headlights on.
Al-Muhajir can only see the blackened interior of the space that will soon become his tomb. He is being watched by Americans at an air base thousands of miles from northern Syria. A young pilot is receiving confirmation of his target and the verbal command “Cleared hot”—the official go-ahead to launch Hellfires.
A Hellfire missile does not miss. It features a millimeter wave-radar system that delivers the weapon on target with such complete precision that pilots use the term “fire and forget” to describe the Hellfire’s path of destruction.
So Abu Hassan al-Muhajir is already a dead man, though he does not know it.
General Qasem Soleimani is also taking a very personal interest in ISIS developments.
It is not just because the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has issued a takfir—a declaration of apostasy—against the Islamic State. Soleimani sees ISIS as a tactical threat because it is a Sunni organization; thus, a threat to Iran. “The so-called Islamic State is neither Islamic nor a state,” is the belief of the Iranian government.
Those practicing Iran’s Shia version of Islam are considered infidels by ISIS, which routinely murders them and levels Shia mosques. As the size of its caliphate grows, ISIS comes to control land stretching all the way to the Iranian border. When the Pakistani Taliban swear loyalty to al-Baghdadi, Iran is put in the difficult position of having yet another group of Sunni extremists nearby.
Qasem Soleimani sees the big picture. The growth of the Islamic State puts it at odds with the general’s ambition to control the entire Middle East. By establishing dominion over Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, the general will be following in the footsteps of Darius the Great, ruler of Persia in the sixth century BC.* But to eliminate the Islamic State, the general needs a powerful ally.
In July 2015, Soleimani decides it is time to speak with Moscow. He knows that Russia has almost no military presence in the Middle East.
Syria is the ideal location for Iran and Russia to collaborate. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, an ally of both Iran and Russia, is fighting a civil war that could remove him from power. Should he be toppled, there is every possibility that a new government backed by the United States will take control. This possibility, combined with the ISIS caliphate, would render Iran and Russia powerless in the Middle East.
So, Soleimani directs Iranian leadership to solicit help from Vladimir Putin.
The Russian leader replies: “Send Qasem Soleimani.”
The general has been banned from international travel by the United Nations since 2007, but that does not stop him. Soleimani flies to Moscow, where he is escorted to Putin’s office in the Kremlin’s north wing. The room is rectangular, with light-red curtains, matching armchairs, and inlaid oak panels on the walls. Two enormous chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The front of Putin’s dark-brown hardwood desk actually slides out to form a working surface. By placing a chair on either side, Putin conducts intense face-to-face discussions with world leaders. It is on this surface that Qasem Soleimani, fresh off his four-hour flight from Tehran, unfurls a map of Syria. He looks down on the five-foot six Russian leader from across the desk. Putin is a former KGB spy for the Soviet Union. A brutal and cold man, he is one of the most feared leaders in the world.
But Soleimani is not afraid.
After pointing out the battle sites between rebels and Syrian troops now threatening Assad, Soleimani states adamantly that the dictator must remain in power—and that Iran and Russia must work together to make it happen.
Russia and Iran both depend upon the Assad regime. Russia has a vital strategic naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus. This is Putin’s only warm-water base on the Mediterranean, making it crucial to the Russian Navy.
Iran uses Syria as a land bridge to transport men and arms to Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. These terrorists, like Soleimani himself, are dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Quickly, Soleimani and Putin make a deal. Russian aircraft will control the skies over Syria, preventing rebel armies from overthrowing Assad. Soleimani’s Quds Force, with the assistance of Hezbollah rebels, will control the action on the ground.
The alliance with Russia has other benefits for Iran: it gains access to the Russian S-300 air defense system—and to Putin himself. When Moscow deepens its diplomatic friendship with Iranian enemies like Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states, it is Soleimani who visits Moscow to express concern.
Now sixty-two, Soleimani has never held greater power, but time is running out for him to fulfill his lifelong goal of destroying the Israeli state and imposing complete Shia dominance of the Middle East.
Thus, the general has prepared his final solution.
The Hellfire missile strikes the truck at 995 miles per hour. The explosion is intensified by the gasoline residue still inside the container. Abu Hassan al-Muhajir dies instantly. The subsequent fire and the convection effect of the small enclosure ensures that he is cooked beyond recognition. Once again, DNA must confirm the identity of a dead ISIS leader.
CIA medical personnel are on the way.
President Donald Trump is elated.
“Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops. Most likely would have taken the top spot—now he is also dead!” tweets the president.
In Iran, Qasem Soleimani is also jubilant. But he remains on guard, knowing that ISIS is weakened but not defeated. And even if that were the case, Sunni terror organizations like al-Qaeda, which are hostile to Iran, would rush in to fill the void. So the general watches every interaction, supervises the interrogations of ISIS captives, and is poised to take immediate action against all perceived dangers.
But, little does General Soleimani know, there is a deadly threat hovering over him.