It appeared to be the militant group’s first official announcement on his fate since Turkiye’s President Tayyip Erdogan said in April that Turkish intelligence forces had killed him in Syria. Islamic State, a shadow of the organisation that once ruled a third of Iraq and Syria, gave no details about the new chief.
The movement reached its peak in 2014 when its then head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the territory it controlled a caliphate. It was beaten back by adversaries in both countries including a US-led coalition, and Baghdadi was killed during a US military operation in Syria in 2019. Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi took over in November 2022 after his predecessor was killed, also in Syria. He was the fourth IS leader to be killed since the group was founded.
Islamic State militants continue to wage insurgent attacks in both Syria and Iraq. Its remaining thousands of militants have in recent years mostly hid out in remote hinterlands. The US-led coalition alongside a Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces is still carrying out raids. Reuters