Career
Al-Bilawi belonged to the Al-bu Bali clan of the Dulaim, the largest tribe in the Iraqi Anbar Province. His tribe formed the nucleus of the resistance/insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq. The Dulaimis returned to the armed insurgency in 2014.
Al-Bilawi led the battles of Samarra and Mosul and he was killed during the campaign. According to Ahmad Khalaf al-Dulaimi, the governor of Anbar, he taught him when they were both at the Iraqi Military Academy. After the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq, al-Bilawi joined al-Qaida in Iraq and worked closely with its then-leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Najm al-Bilawi was detained by American forces in 2005 in Camp Bucca. Al-Bilawi was killed on 5 June 2014 by Iraqi security forces in Mosul. ISIL named the military operation that resulted in their seizure of Mosul on 9 June 2014 Bilawi Vengeance, a reference to his alias.
Following his death in an Iraqi military raid, a laptop belonging to al-Bilawi revealed high quality intelligence on the operations and leadership structure of ISIL. His death was acknowledged by ISIL's official spokesman, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, in a June 2014 statement that praised his contributions to the group. He was reportedly succeeded by Adnan al-Sweidawi as leader of the ISIL Military Council.