BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- Though the death of Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared by Washington is seen as welcoming news, politicians and experts around the world have expressed concerns of possible retaliation and lingering problems in counterterrorism fights.
Al-Baghdadi, 48, whose real name was Ibrahim Awad al-Badri, announced the establishment of a caliphate, or the so-called Islamic State, in June 2014. In 2016, the U.S. Department of State offered a reward of up to 25 million U.S. dollars for information leading to his capture or death.
DEATH NEWS WELCOMED
Speaking in the White House on Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that al-Baghdadi killed himself by igniting a suicide vest during a U.S. raid on Saturday night in northwestern Syria.
Many countries, including Libya, Britain, France, Finland, Denmark and Australia, hailed the news on Sunday.
"We received with great appreciation the news" about the killing of IS leader, the Ministry of Interior of the UN-backed Libyan government said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called it "an important moment," while French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the U.S. operation as a hard blow against the IS.
Posting Sunday on his twitter, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod called the news "an important step against terrorism," adding that "Denmark is still committed to the ongoing fight against IS' inhuman and extremist ideology."
"As the IS founder and linchpin, al-Baghdadi's death will greatly decrease the cohesion and internal unity of the organization," Ma Xiaolin, a Chinese specialist on international issues and professor with Zhejiang International Studies University, told Xinhua.
"The IS may have internal disputes and rifts regards to al-Baghdadi's successor, which are good news to the anti-terrorism fight in the Middle East," Ma said.
TRUMP'S POLITICAL ASSET
During his speech at the White House, Trump highlighted the significance of the IS leader's death and expressed his gratitude to Russia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Syrian Kurds, saying the mission could only have taken place with the help of other nations and people.
This operation offers Trump an opportunity to deny criticism following his decision to withdraw U.S. troop from Syria earlier this month.
U.S. troop's withdrawal from northern Syria led to Turkey's military operation on the border with Syria and was criticized in the United States and international community of betraying Kurds militia in the region, a longtime U.S. ally in anti-IS fights, and giving breathing space to the IS.
Announcing this news in such a high pitch, Trump wants to win more support for U.S. force's retreat from the Middle East and add scores for his political assets as the presidential election is approaching, Ma said.
Al-Baghdadi's death can absolutely be a highlight of achievements for Trump, who might hope to use the news to draw "a symbolic period to the phased victory of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts," quenching the international criticism over U.S. withdrawal from Syria, said Sun Chenghao, a researcher on U.S. affairs with China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR).
However, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that it does not have reliable information on the U.S. operation in the Idlib de-escalation zone in Syria that allegedly killed al-Baghdadi, expressing doubts on his death.
ANTI-TERRORISM WAR NOT ENDED
Noting the importance of the news, politicians and experts also warned that it is far from the end of the threat.
Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne said on Sunday that the possible killing of al-Baghdadi will put the IS in a more difficult situation but has not paralyzed its operations.
"There are fighters remaining, who have concentrated in some areas close-by," he said.
France, Denmark, Britain and Australia all said that they will continue to work with international partners to counter terrorism such as the ISIS while the Australian PM Morrison said in a statement that their efforts include stemming the terrorists financing as well as their recruitment and propaganda on the internet.
Al-Baghdadi's death is not the end of the IS but only a defeat that could divide the group into fractions, said Ma, adding that the counterterrorism situation in the Middle East is still serious and the question of how to deal with the captured extremists remains.
The IS's control and influence over its branches around the world might ease following its leader's death, which means that the IS fractions can be more self-directed and take actions more locally-targeted, Li Wei, a CICIR expert of counterterrorism, told Xinhua.
In the long run, it will not change the situation that large terrorist groups have broken into fractions in recent years, said Li, adding that the returning of European extremists recruited by the IS will also continue to threaten the safety of their motherlands in the short term, with potentially more terrorist attacks launched to revenge the death of Al-Baghdadi.
(Xinhua reporters Liu Yang in Washington, Zhang Yuhong in Brussels, Gui Tao in London, Tang Ji in Paris, Bai Jie in Canberra, Lin Yan, Jiang Jie, Cheng Shuaipeng and Zhang Miao in Beijing, also contributed to the story.)
