/Abu-Al-Hassan-Al-Qurayshi-Killed.webp "File photo: A fighter from a Christian Syriac militia that battles the Islamic State group burns an IS flag on the western side of Raqqa, northeast Syria, July 17, 2017. © Hussein Malla/AP")
Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of ISIS, was recently killed in a battle, the group's spokesman said in an audio recording released on Wednesday.
Little was known about al-Qurayshi, who took over the group's leadership after Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in a February US raid in northwest Syria.
The death of al-Qurayshi, the group's second leader to be killed this year, will be devastating. ISIS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer announced at a time when ISIS has been attempting to carry out deadly attacks in areas of Syria and Iraq where the extremists once declared a "caliphate."
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, according to Al-Muhajer, has been appointed as the group's new leader.
Al-Qurayshi is the third ISIS leader to be eliminated since its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a northwest raid in October 2019.
No one took responsibility for the assassination.
White House officials welcomed the news.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, remarked to reporters, "We welcome the news that another ISIS leader is no longer among the living."
