The recently named new leader of the Islamic State terrorist group was recently killed on the battlefield, about 10 months after the death of the previous leader following a U.S. raid in northwest Syria, a spokesman for the radical Islamist movement revealed Wednesday.
ISIS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer said Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed “in combat with enemies of God” but did not detail the timing or the circumstances of his death, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
The terror group identified the new ISIS leader as Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi. Quarashi refers to the Arab clan of Muhammad, from whom Islamic State leaders must claim descent, according to AFP.
Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was the third Islamic state leader to die in combat since its founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in Idlib by U.S. troops in October 2019.
“He died fighting the enemies of God, killing some of them before being killed like a man on the battlefield,” the Islamic State spokesman said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Asked in Washington about al-Qurayshi’s death, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told The Associated Press: “We certainly welcome the news of the death of another ISIS leader. I don’t have any additional operational details to provide at this time.”
