(PresidentialHill.com)- ISIS’s head was killed in combat, making him the militant Islamist group’s second chief to die this year.
A representative for the organization revealed the passing of obscure Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi on Wednesday.
According to the New York Post, Al-Qurayshi took the throne after Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was assassinated in February by American special forces in Syria.
Other than saying that the most recent head of the group died “fighting the enemies of God, slaying some of them before being killed like a man on the battlefield,” the spokeswoman gave no other information regarding his passing.
The spokesman added that Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi is the organization’s new leader.
Despite sharing the name al-Qurayshi, all three are thought to be unrelated. According to the Post, the name references Muhammad, an Islamic prophet who lived in the 7th century.
The most recent homicide has not yet been assigned a perpetrator.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said that although there is no further information regarding the killing, American defense officials “welcome the news of the death of another ISIS senior.”
The Free Syrian Army (FSA), a rebel organization that does not cooperate with the United States, murdered Abu al-Hassan in mid-October in Syria’s southern Daraa province, according to a statement later released by U.S. Central Command.
Nevertheless, American authorities were swiftly called in to review the outcomes despite the absence of American participation in the operation.
According to a U.S. defense official who anonymously spoke to VOA to discuss the intelligence, the FSA had slain Abu al-Hassan based on evidence found at the scene and later DNA testing.
U.S. defense and intelligence authorities have not yet revealed how they could identify the IS commander through DNA analysis, as Abu al-Hassan is not his real name but rather a nom de guerre. The U.S. official did not explain why it took until now to confirm the IS leader’s death.
Abu al-Hassan was likely either Juma’a Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri, the brother of former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, or Abd al-Raouf al-Muhajir, the head of the IS general directorate of provinces, according to intelligence acquired by United Nations member states and revealed in July.
