Three in a row as another Islamic State leader bites the dust

The leader of ISIS has been killed in battle, with the ­jihadist group on Thursday ­announcing a replacement to head up its sleeper cells.

Islamic State militants at a checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin. Picture: AFP.

The leader of Islamic State has been killed in battle, with the ­jihadist group on Thursday ­announcing a replacement to head up its remaining sleeper cells.

A spokesman for ISIS said Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi, was killed “in combat with enemies of God”, without elaborating on the date or circumstances of his death. He was the third ­leader killed in three years.

The US military’s Central Command said Hashimi had been killed in an operation carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province in southern Syria in mid-October.

Daraa province is mostly controlled by Syrian government forces and rebels who have reached understandings with the regime. In mid-October, Damascus said it had launched a joint operation against Islamic State with former rebels in the south of the province.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “We welcome the announcement that another leader from ISIS is no longer walking on the face of the Earth.”

Speaking in an audio message, an ISIS spokesman said Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi had been named as the group’s new leader. Qurashi refers to a tribe of the Prophet Mohammed, from whom ISIS leaders must claim descent.

After a meteoric rise in Iraq and Syria in 2014 that saw it conquer vast swathes of territory, ISIS saw its self-proclaimed “caliphate” collapse under a wave of offensives.

The Sunni Muslim extremist group’s austere and terror-ridden rule was marked by beheadings and shootings.

It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, but sleeper cells still carry out attacks in both countries.

The group or its branches have also claimed attacks elsewhere this year, including in Afghanistan, Iran and Israel.

The spokesman did not provide details on the new leader, but said he was a “veteran” jihadist and called on all groups loyal to ISIS to pledge their allegiance to its fourth leader.

ISIS’s previous chief, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, was killed in February this year in a US raid in Idlib province in northern Syria.

His predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed, also in Idlib, in October 2019.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre would not comment on any US involvement in the operation that led to ­Hashimi’s death.

“We are pleased to see the removal of ISIS leaders in such quick succession,” she said. “The United States remains committed to countering the global threat from ISIS and stands ready to work with international partners.”

The ISIS leadership has suffered repeated blows from various quarters this year. In October, US forces killed a “senior” ISIS member in a pre-dawn raid in northeastern Syria.

The raid targeted “Rakkan Wahid al-Shammari, an ISIS official known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters”, US officials said.

It said a later air strike had killed two other senior ISIS members. In July, the Pentagon said it had killed Syria’s top ISIS jihadist in a drone strike in the north of the country.

US Central Command said he had been “one of the top five” ISIS leaders. Turkey said in September that security forces had arrested a “senior executive” of ISIS known as Abu Zeyd, whose real name was Bashar Khattab Ghazal al-­Sumaidai. Turkish media said there were some indications ­Sumaidai might have been the ISIS leader.

In January, ISIS launched a major attack on a prison housing fellow jihadists in northeastern Syria, in a jailbreak attempt that triggered a week of deadly clashes. Hundreds of ISIS prisoners, including leaders, were thought to have escaped, with some crossing to neighbouring Turkey.

AFP