According to the Islamic State, the leader of the Islamic State was killed in combat.
Abu al Hassan al Hashimi al Qurayshi was the second leader of IS to be killed in this year’s IS uprising.
Its smaller, dormant groups known as sleeper cells have been responsible for deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq. A sister organization in Afghanistan also claimed responsibility in attacks that killed many people in recent months.
Abu Omar al Muhajer, an IS spokesperson, said that he died fighting against the enemies of God and killed some of them before being executed like a soldier on the battlefield.
According to the US military, al Qurayshi died in October. The operation was also carried out by rebels from Syria’s southern province of Daraa.
It wasn’t clear why the announcement was made Wednesday, more than a month after al Qurayshi’s death.
“We welcome the news about the death of another IS leader. John Kirby, US National Security Council coordinator of strategic communications, stated that he doesn’t have any operational details at the moment.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a group IS fighters were killed by Syrian rebels in Daraa.
The observatory stated that they included an Iraqi citizen commander and a Lebanese fighter.
One of the IS fighters also detonated the explosive belt he was wearing during clash.
However, it is not clear if this was the attack that killed al Qurayshi.
Al Qurayshi wasn’t his real name
It was not known much about al Qurayshi, the man who assumed the leadership of the group after his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al Hashimi al Qurayshi died. He was killed during a US raid in February in northwest Syria.
They are believed not to be related. Al Qurayshi is not their real name.
As the new leader of the group, Abu al Hussein al Husseini al Qurayshi was announced.
This was a major blow to IS who were defeated in Syria in 2016 and in Iraq in 2017.
Al Qurayshi is now the third leader to die since Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, founder of the Islamic Republic, was killed in an attack in October 2019 by US forces.