IS says leader Abu al-Hassan al-Qurayshi killed in battle

BEIRUT — The leader of the Islamic State 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 U.S. 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 IS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer came at a time when IS has been trying to carry out deadly attacks in parts of Syria and Iraq the extremists once declared a 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.