Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, the leader of the Islamic State group, has died in clashes in northwestern Syria, announced the group on Thursday.
In a recorded statement on its channels on the Telegram messaging app, the group said that its leader Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi “was killed after direct clashes” with the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib province.
The spokesperson, as per news agency AFP, also announced Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as al-Qurashi’s successor and the Islamic State’s new leader.
Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, will be the group’s fifth leader.
Before, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, the last leader Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as per the group’s announcement, died in November of 2022. His predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi was killed in February of the same year, during a US raid in Idlib province. The Islamic State group’s first-ever “caliph”, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was also killed in Idlib. He died in October 2019.
The group saw a meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Back then; it conquered vast swathes of territory. However, the Islamic State soon saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” collapse under a wave of offensives.
In 2017, it was defeated in Iraq and in 2019; it faced defeat in Syria. However, as per AFP, despite this, the sleeper cells of the group still carry out attacks in both countries. The Sunni Muslim extremist group’s austere and terror-ridden rule, as per the France-based news agency, was marked by beheadings and mass shootings.
