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Beirut, November 30
The leader of the Islamic State group, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a battle recently, the group’s spokesman said in audio released Wednesday without giving further details.
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.
The death will be a blow to the group as al-Qurayshi is the second leader to be killed this year.
The announcement by IS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer came at a time when IS has been trying to carry out deadly attacks in parts of Syria and Iraq the extremists once declared a caliphate.
Al-Muhajer said that a new leader, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, was named as the group’s new leader.
Al-Qurayshi is the third leader to be killed since its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hunted down by the Americans in a raid in northwest in October 2019.
No one claimed responsibility for the killing. AP
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