The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization on Wednesday acknowledged the death of its leader and confirmed his successor, CNN reported.
The group’s media affiliate al-Furqan published an audio message by an ISIS spokesman announcing the death of its leader, who was appointed in March.
“I announce and mourn for the Islamic state and the fighters of almighty Islamic state, (the absence) of the Amir of believers and the Calipha of the Muslims Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al- Qurayshi … he was killed while struggling against the enemies’ of God,” spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer said in the message released Wednesday and quoted by CNN.
ISIS did not say who killed the group commander or where.
The group announced his successor, who goes by Abu al-Husain al-Husaini al-Quraishi. Little is known about him, but the group described him as an “old fighter” without mentioning any further details.
The leader whose death was announced on Wednesday was appointed by ISIS in March, a month after US President Joe Biden announced the death of a previous leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in a military operation in the northwest of Syria.
The death of Qurayshi, 45, was another crushing blow to ISIS two years after the violent Sunni Muslim group lost longtime leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a similar raid in 2019.