The Islamic State (IS) extremist group confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Ibrahim Al-Quraishi, and named Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi as his successor, according to a statement released on Thursday.
The group pledges “its loyalty to Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, emir of believers and caliph of Muslims,” the spokesman said in an audio recording confirming the death of the former IS chief. “Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi and the official spokesman for the Islamic State, … Abu Hamza al-Quraishi, died recently,” he said.
The former leader of the group detonated the explosive belt he was carrying in early February during a US operation in Syria, according to US sources. The US action in the Idlib region came days after IS launched its biggest offensive in years against a Kurdish-run prison in the city of Hasakah, where members of the group were being held.
In October 2019, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Quraishi’s predecessor at the head of IS, was also killed in an attack in the Idlib region, largely controlled by extremists and rebels.
Little is known about the new IS leader, except that he has until now held the number three position in the jihadist movement.
“We just don’t know” anything about his identity, says Tore Hamming, a researcher in the war studies department at King’s College London.
According to the IS statement, Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi was named successor by Abu Ibrahim al-Quraishi himself, and the appointment was soon confirmed by leaders of the group.
Damien Ferre, director of consultancy Jihad Analytics, says the choice of successor likely took place before Abu Ibrahim’s death to avoid infighting. “The decision was taken early to avoid a destabilization of the group”, he says, explaining that a similar logic was applied to that of 2019.
Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi arrives at the helm of IS at a time when the group appears weakened by US-backed operations in Iraq and Syria to stem a resurgence of jihadists.
In its time of greatest territorial expansion, IS proclaimed a caliphate that stretched across large swaths of Iraq and Syria, with millions of people. In these territories, the group has enforced strict enforcement of Islamic law, persecuting minorities and perpetrating numerous human rights violations, according to several NGOs and Western governments.
After a long and bloody military campaign, with the support of the international anti-jihadist coalition led by the United States, and on land led by Syrian Kurds and Brachy forces, the jihadists were definitively defeated in March 2019 in the main enclaves of their self-proclaimed caliphate.
The remaining IS militants were mainly scattered in hideouts in the Syrian desert, from which they recently returned to carry out attacks against Kurdish and Syrian forces.
According to a UN report released last year, around 10,000 Islamic State fighters are still active in Iraq and Syria.
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