Born: 1957 or 1959;

Place of Birth: Mosul, Nineveh, Iraq;

Birth name: Abdulrahman Mustafa al-Qaduli;

Died: 25 March 2016 in Eastern Syria;

Allegiance:
1. Al-Qaeda (1998 – 2013);
2. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (2004 – 2006);
3. Islamic State of Iraq (2012 – April 2013);
4. ISIS (April 2013 – March 2016);

Rank: Deputy leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria.

Activities:

In the early days he was a physics teacher in Tal Afar and a preacher. He was involved with radical Islam since the 1980s.

Al-Anbari known as Abu Ala al-Afri was the governor for territories held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. Considered the ISIS second-in-command, along with Abu Muslim al-Turkmani – his counterpart in Iraq, he was viewed as a potential successor of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Al-Qaduli was believed to have travelled to Afghanistan in 1998 and trained with al-Qaeda. It was here he was said to have earned the trust and respect of Osama bin Laden.

He returned from Afghanistan following the 2003 invasion of Iraq to the Sulaymaniyah province of Iraqi Kurdistan, where he was briefly a member of Ansar al-Islam.

He pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in 2004, joining Al-Qaeda in Iraq, overseeing the sharia authorities in northern Iraq and serving as al-Zarqawi’s local leader in Mosul.

Islamic State sources confirm that he was in charge of coordinating day-to-day military operations of the Islamic State in al-Sham.

He was a gifted speaker and served as a Sharii, and while he was in al-Raqqa, he gave a series of recording lectures at al-Imam al-Nawawi Mosque, that summarize the Aqida of the Islamic State and break down the arguments of man-made constitutions and laws, parliaments, courts, and democratic norms like devolution of power and popular sovereignty in a coherent and unparalleled manner.

During 2013, al-Qaduli sent messengers and held meetings with field commanders of various Syrian rebel groups, offering them money and weapons to switch allegiance to ISIS.

Al-Qaduli is rumoured to have favoured reconciliation with al-Qaeda and its Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front, after al-Qaeda cut off ties with ISIS in early 2014.