Overview

Ayad al-Jumaili was a senior ISIS leader who reported directly to ISIS caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.Isabel Coles and Ned Parker, “How Saddam’s men help Islamic State rule,” Reuters, December 11, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mideast-crisis-iraq-islamicstate/. Jumaili was killed in a March 31, 2017, Iraqi airstrike in the region of al-Qaim near the Syrian border, according to Iraqi intelligence.“Islamic State second-in-command killed in airstrike, Iraqi intelligence says,” Reuters, April 1, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-islamicstate-idUSKBN1733IU/.

Before his death, Jumaili reportedly led ISIS’s international security unit known as “Emni”—contradicting reports that former ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, who died in an August 2016 airstrike, oversaw that unit.Isabel Coles and Ned Parker, “How Saddam’s men help Islamic State rule,” Reuters, December 11, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mideast-crisis-iraq-islamicstate/. Emni, commonly referred to as “Amniya,” is responsible for exporting terror attacks internationally, including to Paris and Brussels.Rukmini Callimachi, “How a Secretive Branch of ISIS Built a Global Network of Killers,” New York Times, August 3, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/world/middleeast/isis-german-recruit-interview.html?_r=0. In the announcement of Jumaili’s death, Iraqi officials referred to the militant as ISIS’s second-in-command, as well as the group’s “minister of war.” Tajik fighter Gulmurod Khalimov, however, was reported in September 2016 to hold the “minister of war” title in the terror group.Nicola Harley, “Islamic State's deputy leader Ayad al-Jumaili killed in air strike, reports say,” Telegraph (London), April 1, 2017, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/01/islamic-states-deputy-leader-ayad-al-jumaili-killed-air-strike/;
Shehab Khan, “American-trained sniper becomes Isis’s new minister of war,” September 7, 2016, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/american-trained-sniper-isis-minister-of-war-gulmurod-khalimov-a7231121.html. According to NBC News, Jumaili’s ranking within ISIS was “not officially known.”“ISIS Second-in-Command Ayad al-Jumaili Killed in Airstrike: Iraqi Military,” NBC News, April 1, 2017, http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/isis-second-command-ayad-al-jumaili-killed-airstrike-iraqi-military-n741536.

Jumaili, reportedly from Fallujah, previously served as an intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein. He is believed to have joined the insurgency following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.Isabel Coles and Ned Parker, “How Saddam’s men help Islamic State rule,” Reuters, December 11, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mideast-crisis-iraq-islamicstate/.