article_snippet.sent: Earlier this month, MailOnline reported that ISIS militants are being led by a highly secretive group of strategists and officials that were once senior figures in Saddam Hussein's army.
article_snippet.sent: Despite thousands of foreign fighters flocking to join a highly secretive group of strategists and officials that were once senior figures in Saddam Hussein's army and starring in a highly secretive group of strategists and officials that were once senior figures in Saddam Hussein's army propaganda videos, ISIS leadership is dominated by ex-members of the late Iraqi dictator's military.
article_snippet.sent: Almost all of the regional commanders appointed by ISIS leader and self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, played prominent roles in Saddam Hussein's army before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and became involved with ISIS either in the resulting insurgency or after the dictator's 2006 execution.
article_snippet.sent: Militants: Almost all the highly secretive officials overseeing the day-to-day running of the Islamic State (pictured) are former members of Iraqi Army .
article_snippet.sent: One of the most prominent former Iraqi Army generals within ISIS was Abu Muslim al-Turkmani (left) who led the terrorists' operations in Iraq until he was killed in an American airstrike last November. 
article_snippet.sent: One former Syrian rebel who became an ISIS' regional commander told the Washington Post that One former Syrian rebel who became an ISIS regional commander found that almost all of the highly secretive officials overseeing all aspects to the terror group's day-to-day business were ex members of Iraqi Army.
article_snippet.sent: Despite thousands of foreign fighters flocking to join the terror group and starring in the terror group propaganda videos, ISIS' leadership is dominated by ex-members of the military of Hussein (pictured)
article_snippet.sent: The process of giving former Iraqi commanders senior roles was started by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (left) who was a former Iraqi Army officer and therefore more trusted than the Jordanian criminal, former gangster and ex-alcoholic who founded ISIS, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
article_snippet.sent: Many of these highly-trained commanders joined the insurgency in the country in the mid-2000s, which was dominated by ISIS' who at the time were known by the name Al Qaeda in Iraq.
article_snippet.sent: When al-Baghdadi took control of the group in 2010, many of these highly-trained commanders were given prominent leadership roles in the hope these highly-trained commanders might win the support of the Sunni tribes who dominate Western Iraq and who have been largely ignored by the country's Shia-led Baghdad government.
article_snippet.sent: The process had, however been started by al-Baghdadi's predecessor Abu Omar al-Baghdadi who was himself a former Iraqi Army officer and therefore more trusted by the military than the Jordanian criminal, former gangster and ex-alcoholic who founded ISIS, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
article_snippet.sent: One of the most prominent former Iraqi Army generals within ISIS' was Fadel Ahmad Abdullah al-Hiyali, who used the code name Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, and was in charge of all the terrorists' operations in Iraq until he was killed in an American airstrike last November.
article_snippet.sent: Other senior figures include Abu Ali al-Anbari, who currently acts as Baghdadi's deputy leader in Syria and is a former military general in Hussein's Iraqi Army, and Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, a former colonel in Iraqi Air Force intelligence and now plays a leading role in ISIS' military council.
article_snippet.sent: Less prominent militants with an Iraqi Army backgrounds include Abu Ahmad al-Alwani - a former Baathist soldier and now an ISIS' military council member, Abu Kassem - a former Iraqi officer and now in charge of ISIS' suicide bombers and foreign fighters.