Camp Bucca seen as critical point in formation of Islamic State

IN 2004, an unremarkable man was led into a desert compound run by the US military in southern Iraq where around 1000 others milled around in multicoloured jumpsuits.

The small-time preacher with a PhD in Islamic studies, known as Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al Badri, had been picked up by US forces for co-founding a radical group called Jamaat Jaysh Ahl al Sunnah.

He was taken to Camp Bucca, a US facility in Basra where inmates were divided on sectarian lines.

Eleven years on and now known as Abu Bakr-al-Baghdadi, the quiet and charismatic preacher is the most wanted man in the world — self-styled Caliph of the Islamic State.

While no single factor can be attributed to the group’s rise to become the deadliest and most successful recruiter of foreign fighters in history, experts agree the camp played a critical part in its genesis.

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Role as incubator of ISIS
Camp Bucca offered an opportunity for face-to-face meetings and organizing for Islamists and ex-Ba’athists in Iraq.Camp Bucca hosted a number of hardened leaders of the Iraqi insurgency (2003–11). Some of these militant leaders went on to become leaders in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Read more...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Bucca