WASHINGTON -- After a military dog cornered the Islamic State group's leader in a tunnel in northern Syria on Saturday, U.S. officials repeatedly insisted that its identity remain secret. The dog was slightly wounded when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed himself with an explosive, they said, and revealing the dog's name before it recovered and returned home could reveal too much about the animal's classified unit in the Army's Delta Force.
The dog apparently is still in the Middle East, but its identity is no longer an official secret.
Early Thursday, Trump confirmed on Twitter reports that the "talented dog" is named Conan -- and said the animal is headed to the White House next week.
Trump's message came after days of intrigue around the heroic canine. The president on Wednesday tweeted an edited photo showing him placing a Medal of Honor on the dog.
In a tweet sent just after midnight Wednesday, Trump complimented the Daily Wire, the conservative publication behind that image, and promised to honor the real canine in person.
Trump first hinted that a dog had played a key role in capturing al-Baghdadi during a 40-minute news conference on Sunday announcing the death of the Islamic State leader.
"Our canine, I call it a dog, a beautiful dog, a talented dog, was injured and brought back," he said, describing how the canine chased al-Baghdadi into the tunnel where the militant leader later died after detonating a suicide vest, also killing two children.
As reporters scrambled for more information on the brave creature, they hit a surprising wall: Military officials refused to disclose anything about its identity, beyond confirming its breed, Belgian Malinois. Making the dog's name public also could identify the soldiers who worked with the animal, they said.
"We're not going to release just yet photos or names of dogs or anything else," Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Monday.
A few hours later, though, Trump tweeted a photo of the dog and praised it for doing a "GREAT JOB."
Newsweek reported soon afterward that the dog was named after comedian Conan O'Brien. The Pentagon refused to confirm those details.
The dog's identity was revealed as the Islamic State group broke its silence Thursday to confirm its leader's death.
In an audio recording uploaded on the Telegram app, the militants mourned the loss of al-Baghdadi, who led the organization for nearly a decade, and its spokesman, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, who was killed a day after al-Baghdadi and who had widely been considered a potential successor.
The audio recording was the first word from the Islamic State confirming the death of its leader.
The announcement said that al-Baghdadi had been succeeded as leader by Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, whom it identified as the "emir of the believers" and "caliph."
Almost nothing is publicly known about al-Qurayshi, including his real name, and counterterrorism analysts were scrambling Thursday to try to figure out who he is.
"Nobody -- and I mean nobody outside a likely very small circle within ISIS -- have any idea who their new leader 'Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi' is," Paul Cruickshank, editor of the CTC Sentinel at the Combating Terrorism Center, said in a tweet Thursday, using an acronym for the Islamic State. "The group has not yet released any meaningful biographical details which might allow analysts to pinpoint his identity."
Daniele Raineri, a journalist and analyst who has been studying the Islamic State's leadership structure for more than a decade, said that the group's leaders often acquire a new nom de guerre with the appointment to a new position, meaning al-Qurayshi may have had a completely different name last week.
The al-Qurayshi appellation at the end of his name indicates that he is being portrayed as a descendant of the Quraysh tribe of the Prophet Muhammad, a lineage that the Islamic State considers to be a prerequisite for becoming a caliph or ruler of a Muslim theocracy.
Its use indicates that the Islamic State continues to see itself as a caliphate -- even if one with practically no territory.
"It shows that while the world is ready to pronounce the Islamic State dead and finished, the group's core leadership continues to believe it can operate much as it has in the past," said Colin Clarke, a senior fellow at the Soufan Center, a research organization in New York.
"The suggestion is that nothing changes, allegiance should still be to the leadership, and affiliates and franchises should continue to look to al-Qurayshi for guidance on how to operate," he said.
The announcement, in a seven-minute, 37-second recording, was coupled with a warning to the United States not to gloat over killing al-Baghdadi, who oversaw beheadings of American hostages and other atrocities.
"Do not be happy O America, for the death of Sheikh al-Baghdadi, and do not forget the cups of death at his hands, may God accept him," the announcement said.
It boasted of the group's disciples and expansion beyond the Middle East, even as its core territory in Iraq and Syria was reduced to nil: "Don't you see America that the State is now on the threshold of Europe and Central Africa?"
Records of wire transfers and the testimony of captured fighters in the Democratic Republic of Congo indicate that the group has set up a base of operation in the Central African country.
The announcement also took aim at the leadership of Trump, admonishing the United States: "Don't you see how you became the laughingstock of the nations, and an old and crazy man controls your fate, whose opinion changes between morning and evening?"
The announcement implied that the Islamic State hierarchy had convened in order to discuss the successor question and suggested that he had been hand-picked in advance by al-Baghdadi: "The sheikhs of the mujahedeen agreed, after consulting with their brothers and acting upon the recommendation of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to pledge allegiance to the sheikh and mujahid, the scholar, doer and worshipper Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi," the announcement said.
It also called upon supporters to pledge allegiance to the new leader, a ritual that took new meaning under al-Baghdadi's reign, as attackers around the world recorded video pledges of fealty to the caliph before carrying out killings.
In Thursday's recording, the group said it would exact its retribution for the deaths of its members but did not specify how.
Information for this article was contributed by Tim Elfrink, Sarah Dadouch, Asser Khattab, Joby Warrick and Kareem Fahim of The Washington Post; and by Rukmini Callimachi and Karam Shoumali of The New York Times.
A Section on 11/01/2019