Abu Waheeb

Shaker Wahib al-Fahdawi al-Dulaimi (1986 – May 6, 2016), better known as Abu Waheeb ("Father of the Generous"; Arabic: أبو وهيب), was a leader of the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Anbar, Iraq. He was known for the execution of three Syrian Alawite truck drivers in Iraq in the summer of 2013, as head of the Al Anbar Lions. He and three others were killed in a United States-led coalition airstrike in May 2016, according to the US Department of Defense.

Fahdawi was born in 1986. In 2006, while studying computer science at the University of Anbar, he was arrested by US forces on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Following his arrest Fahdawi was detained by US forces at the Camp Bucca detention facility in southern Iraq until 2009, when he was sentenced to death and moved to Tikrit Central Prison in Saladin Province.

Fahdawi was one of 110 detainees who escaped the prison in 2012, following a riot and an attack by forces from the Islamic State of Iraq. He had learnt from the senior ISIS leaders he had been imprisoned with, and he became a field commander in Anbar province after his release. Iraqi officials blamed him for a long list of terror-related offences and put a $50,000 bounty on him.

By 2014, Fahdawi was playing an important role in leading combat operations of the group, now know as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, in Anbar.

On 6 May 2016, the Pentagon said Abu Waheeb was killed along with three others in a vehicle by a US airstrike near Rutba.

According to transcripts, Omar Mateen, the perpetrator of the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, said that the attack was a response to the killing of Abu Waheeb. Mateen stated his attack was "triggered" by a 6 May 2016 U.S. bombing strike that killed Abu Waheeb. Mateen's words were: “That’s what triggered it, OK? They should have not bombed and killed Abu [Waheeb].”