However days after the death of al-Baghdadi, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was ultimately chosen as the new declared leader of ISIL.

[4] Qardash was jailed in 2003–2004[8] or 2005[4] by the US authorities with al-Baghdadi in Camp Bucca, a detention facility in Basra, following the invasion of Iraq and the ousting of Saddam Hussein's regime.

[4] Qardash consequently moved to Syria to establish firearm and explosive factories and storage facilities, and met Al-Baghdadi almost a hundred times for coordination of ISIL operations.

After the rift between ISIL and Al Nusra Front, he was assigned governor "wali" of al-Sharqiyyah including Syrian Al-Hasaka, Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa.

He is also famous as head of security for Islamic State operatives, and as the coordinator of ISIL terrorist cells in North Africa and Europe.

[16] A statement in August 2019 attributed to ISIL's propaganda arm, the Amaq News Agency, said that Qardash had been named al-Baghdadi's successor.

[19] The allegedly false statement re-emerged in October 2019 following the death of al-Baghdadi, and was reported on by several news organizations, including Newsweek.

[20] A few days later, on 31 October, ISIL presented Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as the name of the individual who was Baghdadi's successor,[21] and not Qardash.

INIS issued a statement saying "Today, the terrorist named Abdul Nasser al-Qardash, the candidate to succeed the criminal al-Baghdadi, was arrested.

[citation needed] There are conflicting reports however that Qardash may have been initially arrested in Syria in 2019 by Kurdish forces but was handed over to the Iraqi authorities only recently (May 2020).

[26] The Syrian Democratic Forces affiliated with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) had captured Qardash after the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani and kept him for months before delivering him to the Iraqi authorities.