The leader of the ISIS group, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a battle recently, the group’s spokesman said in audio released Wednesday without giving further details.
Little had been known about al-Qurayshi, who took over the group’s leadership following the death of his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in a US raid in February in northwest Syria.
The death will be a blow to the group as al-Qurayshi is the second leader to be killed this year. The announcement by ISIS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer came at a time when ISIS has been trying to carry out deadly attacks in parts of Syria and Iraq the extremists once declared a so-called “caliphate”.
Al-Muhajer said that a new leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, was named as the group’s new leader.
Al-Qurayshi is the third leader to be killed since its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hunted down by the Americans in a raid in northwest in October 2019.
No one claimed responsibility for the killing.
The White House welcomed the news.
"We welcome the announcement that another leader of ISIS is no longer walking the face of the Earth," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
