Ben Hubbard has been covering the battle with ISIS for the New York Times. Anderson spoke to him from Baghdad. Here are the five most surprising things we learned from Ben about the leadership of ISIS.
- ISIS' top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has about two dozen deputies.
- These deputies are mostly middle-aged Iraqi men who spent time in U.S. custody.
- About 1/3 of al-Baghdadi's deputies were officers trained in Saddam Hussein's military.
- The advantage they bring is to allow ISIS to operate as more of a military, rather than just an insurgency force.
- Ben says the creation of an inclusive Iraqi government is key to a longterm strategy for defeating ISIS.
This is not all Ben Hubbard had to say about ISIS. Watch his full interview with Anderson Cooper. http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/29/you-need-to-know-5-things-about-isis/
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