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Daesh announces death of leader

By AFP - Dec 01,2022 - Last updated at Dec 01,2022

BEIRUT — The Daesh terror group said on Wednesday that its leader Abu Hasan Al Hashimi Al Qurashi has been killed in battle and announced a replacement to head up its remaining sleeper cells.

A spokesman for Daesh said Hashimi, an Iraqi, was killed “in combat with enemies of God”, without elaborating on the date or circumstances of his death.

The US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) 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 Daesh 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 [Daesh] is no longer walking in the face of the Earth.”

Speaking in an audio message, the Daesh spokesman said Abu Al Hussein Al Husseini Al Qurashi had been named as the group’s new leader.

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

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