Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was born
Hamid Dawud Mohamed Khalil al-Zawi in 1964, in the village of Al-Zawiyah,
Al-Anbar Governorate. He descended from the
Qurayshi Al-Arajiyah. His father was Muhammad Khalil al-Zawi, a prominent
sheikh in the village. He graduated from the Police Academy in
Baghdad, and served as a police officer in
Haditha, near Al-Zawiyah. In 1993, he was dismissed from the police due to his
Salafist ideology. He then worked at an electronics repair shop, and served as the
imam of the al-Asaf Mosque. Following the
2003 invasion of Iraq by the
U.S.-led Coalition forces, he formed his own small insurgent group which was called
Jaish al-Ta'ifa al-Mansurah in May 2004, and took part in the
Iraqi insurgency. when it shelled the nearby
Al-Aimmah Bridge, killing seven people and wounding 35. At some point, al-Baghdadi was arrested after U.S. forces searched his house on suspicion he was harboring foreign Arab fighters. He was transported to
Al-Asad Airbase, and his computer was searched. Following his release, he decided to start working in the
Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad organisation after meeting
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Abu Muhammad al-Lubnani, and
Abu Anas al-Shami. At this time, al-Baghdadi went by the
kunya Abu Mahmud. Around this time, when he was traveling from Haditha to Baghdad by car with his family, a car ahead of him was a militant escort vehicle that was scouting the road for American checkpoints. After the escort vehicle had pulled away, there was a checkpoint on the road before entry into the city of
Hit where his vehicle was inspected. He was asked by one of the guards to show his identification card and he presented his Al-Arajiah notables identification card. The soldier was surprised and thought that al-Baghdadi was a
Shia. The soldier said to him, "
Sayyid how could you come to such a place, as these areas are filled with terrorists, and if they know about you, they will kill you." The soldier told him there was news from Haditha that a major terrorist who had left Haditha accompanied by his family, and that he was heading east, and they must search all the vehicles. The soldier did not search al-Baghdadi's vehicle, and al-Baghdadi told the Americans there was no need to search him. Al-Baghdadi was allowed to leave the checkpoint. After his work in
Anbar, al-Baghdadi was transferred to Baghdad where he worked in the
Mujahideen Shura Council and Shari'ah Council of the organization. His kunya at that time was
Abu-Marwah. He was also in charge of security in Baghdad Province for some time. Afterwards, he became the governor of
Diyala for the group. Following the death of al-Zarqawi on 7 June 2006, al-Baghdadi succeeded him as the emir of the MSC, where he worked alongside
Abu Ayyub al-Masri. The MSC was then disbanded and replaced by the
Islamic State of Iraq, in which al-Baghdadi was announced as its emir, and al-Masri was announced as the Minister of War for the organisation. Following the establishment of ISI, al-Baghdadi announced that all Sunni militant groups operating in Iraq should pay allegiance to him and join the ISI. == Controversy over identity ==