The chief of ISIS, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in battle lately, the group’s spokesperson revealed Wednesday — making him the second commander of the extremist group to be slain this yr.
Little is thought about al-Qurayshi, who rose to energy after Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in Syria by US particular forces final winter, and no additional particulars about his loss of life had been supplied by the spokesman, Abu Omar al-Muhajer.
The senior jihadists weren’t believed to be associated and used the nom de guerre “al-Qurayshi” as a nod to the tribe of the Seventh-century Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
“He died preventing the enemies of God killing a few of them earlier than being killed like a person on the battlefield,” al-Muhajer mentioned.
Al-Muhajer mentioned Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi was named because the group’s new chief.
“He is among the veteran warriors and one of many loyal sons of the Islamic State,” the spokesperson mentioned.
No group claimed duty for killing the chief, whose loss of life got here as ISIS had been deploying sleeper cells to hold out sporadic lethal assaults in areas of Iraq and Syria — areas it had as soon as declared caliphates.
ISIS associates in Afghanistan had additionally been ramping up assaults there for the reason that Taliban took management of the nation amid a chaotic US withdrawal final summer time.
The Islamic State additionally took credit score for the slaughter of spiritual pilgrims in Iran amid violent crackdowns on human proper protesters.
US Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby mentioned protection officers “definitely welcome the information of the loss of life of one other ISIS chief,” however mentioned no further particulars had been out there.
ISIS broke away from al Qaeda about 10 years in the past and got here to regulate massive swaths of northern and western Iraq and northern and japanese Syria earlier than being ousted from energy within the nations in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
With Publish wires
