The terrorist group, Islamic State (IS), has named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi its new leader after confirming the death of its leader Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi on Thursday.
The new replacement was announced by the group’s spokesperson in an undated recording on its Telegram channel, Reuters said on Thursday.
The group’s official announcement on the fate of its leader comes months after Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in April that Turkish forces had killed al-Qurashi in Syria.
Abu Hussein al-Qurashi was killed during clashes with the jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Shamin in Syria’s Idlib province, the group’s spokesperson said on Telegram.
The IS spokesperson did not provide further information about its new leader.
Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Quraishi is the fifth IS leader to head the terrorist group since it declared an Islamic caliphate across large swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The IS Khorasan Province branch said to have emerged in 2014 remains active in Afghanistan and has claimed responsibility for dozens of terrorist attacks.
A Human Rights Watch report indicates that between August 2021 and September 2022, at least 700 Hazaras were killed or wounded as a result of 13 separate ISKP attacks.
