BEIRUT: The leader of the Daesh terrorist group, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed, according to a message posted by the terrorist group’s spokesperson on Telegram.
The group has selected Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi to replace him, he added. The spokesman said Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi was killed while fighting, without elaborating. No details about the new Daesh leader were given in the audio message.
Daesh announced Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi as its new leader in March after the death of its predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi. The latter Quraishi was the brother of slain former Daesh caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to two Iraqi security officials and one Western security source.
Both Quraishi and Baghdadi died by blowing themselves and family members up during U.S. raids on their hideouts in northern Syria.
Daesh terrorist group emerged from the chaos of the civil war in neighboring Syria last decade and took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. Baghdadi declared a self-proclaimed caliphate from a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that year and proclaimed himself caliph of all Muslims.
Daesh’s brutal rule, during which it killed and executed thousands of people in the name of its perverted interpretation of religion, came to an end in Mosul when Iraqi and international forces defeated the group there in 2017. –Agencies
