Isis leader reported ‘killed in battle’
Group gives no details but US says death came in fight with Syrian rebels in October
The leader of Islamic State (Isis), Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in battle recently, the group’s spokesman said, giving no further details.
Al-Qurayshi is the second Isis leader to be killed this year at a time when the extremist group has been trying to rise again, with its sleeper cells carrying out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Its affiliate in Afghanistan also claimed attacks that killed dozens in recent months.
The US military said al-Qurayshi was killed in mid-October in an operation conducted by Syrian rebels in Syria’s southern province of Daraa.
It was not clear why the announcement was made on Wednesday, more than a month after al-Qurayshi was killed.
“Isis remains a threat to the region,” the US Central Command said. “CENTCOM and our partners remain focused on the enduring defeat of Isis.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported in mid-October, that Syrian rebels who had earlier reconciled with the government killed a group of Isis fighters in the southern village of Jassem in Daraa province.
They included a commander identified as an Iraqi citizen along with a Lebanese fighter and others, the observatory said, adding that one of the Isis fighters detonated an explosive belt he was wearing during the clash.
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 US raid in February in northwest Syria.
None of the al-Qurayshis are believed to be related. Al-Qurayshi is not their real name but comes from Quraish, the name of the tribe to which Islam’s Prophet Mohammed belonged. Isis claims its leaders hail from this tribe and “al-Qurayshi” serves as part of an Isis leader’s nom de guerre.
The death marked a blow to the group that was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later. The announcement by Isis spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer came at a time when Isis has been trying to carry out deadly attacks in parts of Syria and Iraq the extremists once declared a caliphate.
“He died fighting the enemies of God, killing some of them before being killed like a man on the battlefield,” al-Muhajer said.