jonathan schroden is an analyst at the military intelligence think tank cna. he explained haji abdullah's significance to the islamic state group. sure, so al qurashi was the leader of the islamic state, the central part of the islamic state which is largely based in syria these days, but also has tendrils into iraq. and so, he was the leader that took over after the death of al—baghdadi in another us special operations forces raid about two—and—a—half years ago. his death today will likely affect the islamic state in two ways, one short and one long. the immediate impact is likely to be some amount of disruption of the group's activities. any time an organisation undergoes a leadership change, especially a forced one, there will be some amount of disruption. that said, i expect that disruption to be relatively short—lived as isis is a very well—organised terrorist group, and they've likely got some form of a succession plan