Third Islamic State Leader Allegedly Killed In Combat, US Welcomes Update Of Death

A third Islamic leader is reportedly dead, allegedly killed in combat according to an Islamic State jihadist group.

A spokesperson for the group claims that Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi was killed in combat with enemies of God, The Guardian reported. However, details were not given on when Hashimi died or the circumstances tied to his demise.

According to the US military’s Central Command, Hashimi died in an operation that was carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province in southern Syria in mid-October.

The region is controlled mostly by Syrian government forces and rebels. It was in mid-October when Damascus announced that they had embarked on a joint operation against IS with former rebels in the southern part of the province.

“We welcome the announcement that another leader of Isis is no longer walking the face of the Earth,” US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said.

According to the group’s spokesperson in a report by BBC, the new leader is now Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi.

After its notable rise in 2014, IS conquered several territories that the jihadist group had branded as a caliphate. However, this collapsed under waves of new offensives and IS was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria two years later.

Regardless, sleeper cells of the Sunni Muslim extremist group still carry out attacks in both countries.

Killed earlier this year was Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi during a US raid in Idlib province of northern Syria. His predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was also killed in Idlib on October 2019.

This year alone saw several senior IS members killed by US forces.

In July, the Pentagon said it had killed Syria’s top IS jihadist in a drone strike in the north of the country. US Central Command said he had been “one of the top five” IS leaders.