Explained: The mystery surrounding the unknown chief of the Islamic State group

Istanbul: The jihadis of the Islamic State group announced Wednesday that their leader, whose identity had remained shrouded in mystery, had been killed in battle less than nine months after taking charge of the terrorist organisation.

A spokesperson for US Central Command, which oversees US troops in Syria, confirmed that the leader was dead, saying he had been killed in mid-October by anti-government rebels in southern Syria.

The Islamic State group also named a successor, but provided no information about him other than a nom de guerre.

The leadership transition was announced through a voice message on Telegram.

The leadership transition, announced through a voice message on Telegram, came at a time of extreme weakness for the group, which has been reduced in only a few years from the world’s most fearsome terrorist network to a low-level insurgency struggling to maintain its relevance in mostly rural parts of countries torn by conflict.

At its height, the Islamic State group ruled a self-proclaimed caliphate the size of Britain that spanned the border between Syria and Iraq and boasted tens of thousands of fighters from around the world. Its extremist vision of eternal combat between its forces and anyone who opposed them inspired deadly attacks in Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, Berlin, Baghdad and other major cities.

But an international coalition led by the United States worked with local forces in Iraq and Syria to fight it, finally pushing it from its last patch of territory in eastern Syria in March 2019.

Since then, Islamic State fighters have continued to attack civilians and security forces in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and parts of Africa, but with greatly weakened abilities, while its leadership has been decimated by the United States’ military and its partner forces.

The leader whose death was announced Wednesday went by the name Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

The leader whose death was announced Wednesday went by the name Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. He had been named by the group in March, after its two previous leaders had been killed in separate raids by US special forces on safe houses in northern Syria.

Little was known about the slain leader’s background, including his real name, or any steps that he took to try to revive the organisation.

The message released Wednesday said only that he had been killed “fighting the enemies of God,” and that he had been succeeded by Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, also a nom de guerre, whose real identity was not known.

In a statement, Colonel Joe Buccino, a spokesperson for US Central Command, called the leader’s death “another blow” to the Islamic State group.

Ben Hubbard, c.2022 The New York Times Company

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