Abu Nabil al-Anbari was an Iraqi policeman who , following the 2003 invasion of Iraq , joined al-Qaida in Iraq and took part in the Iraqi insurgency . Arrested by American forces in 2008 , Abu Nabil spent time in detention in Abu Ghraib prison before being released after a year and a half , upon which he returned to militancy . However , not long after he was released , he was captured and imprisoned again , being detained in Abu Ghraib prison until he was freed in a mass prison break in 2013 . He would later serve as ISIL 's " governor " of Salahuddin Governorate , responsible for the group 's operations there , including the attack on the city of Samarra . As the governor of Salahuddin Governorate , he was responsible for overseeing the execution of up to 1,700 Shia Iraqi Air Force cadets in the Camp Speicher massacre . In 2014 , ISIL 's leadership dispatched him from Iraq to Libya as part of a delegation to gather pledges of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from local militants and lead the nascent ISIL branch in the country
Camp Speicher massacre
Camp Speicher massacre
Abu Nabil al-Anbari