For those that haven't paid attention to Iraq. The Islamic State in Iraq is the main coalition of al-Qaeda and Saddamists insurgent groups that al-Qaeda created last year. They announced that all of Western Iraq was in their control and they made Baghdadi leader of the Islamic State of Iraq as they called it.
This was an extremely big fish, in some ways bigger then Masri.
Thanks for clarifying that. Great post BTW.
To what extent was he a titular head, vs. the functional one?