JAKARTA - ISIS leader Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has died, the armed group spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer said in an audio message on Wednesday.
However, Abu Omar al-Muhajer did not outline the date or circumstances of al-Qurashi's death. He only said al-Qurashi was " killed in fighting".
On the same occasion, he announced Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi would become the group's new leader.
Separately, US CENTCOM spokesman Colonel Joe Buccino said in a statement that al-Quraishi was killed in mid-October.
"This operation was carried out by the Syrian Liberation Army in Dar'a Province in Syria. ISIS remains a threat to the region. CENTCOM and our partners remain focused on ISIS's eternal defeat," he said in the statement.
Little is known about Abu Hasan al-Qurashi, who took over the group's leadership following the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, his predecessor in a US attack in February in Syria's northwestern Idlib province.
The deaths of successive leaders marked a blow to the armed group, which the US-led coalition said had been defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later. However, the sleeping cells of armed groups are still carrying out attacks in both countries.
Abu Hasan al-Qurashi is the second Islamic State leader to be killed since its founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was murdered in Syria's Idlib by the US in 2019.
Turkey in September said security forces had arrested Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-Sumaidai, a 'enior executive' of ISIS also known as Abu Zeyd.
Meanwhile, author of the book on ISIS Hassan Hassan said the group weakened, but judged they had not run out.
"This doesn't mean the group is over, but for now it is a shadow of themselves before, they are perforated in terms of leadership and their ability to carry out attacks," he explained, citing Reuters.
"They no longer have an iconic and charismatic leader, and they haven't carried out any major attacks lately."
In Washington, the White House welcomed the news of the death of Abu Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
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