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US military confirms death of Islamic State group leader

Mideast IS
Posted at 2:45 PM, Nov 30, 2022
and last updated 2022-11-30 16:45:56-05

The leader of the Islamic State (IS) group was killed in battle, according to a spokesperson from the terrorist organization.

Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in October by Syrian, The Associated Press reported. It's unclear why the announcement was made more than a month later.

Leadership within IS has changed hands multiple times since 2019. That's when former president Donald Trump announced that IS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. raid in Syria.

Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was named the leader of IS earlier this year after the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

President Joe Biden said Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in Syria by U.S. military forces. No Americans were injured in that operation, Biden stated.

IS is less influential in the region than it was about 10 years ago. It once controlled large pockets of land in Syria and Iraq. A U.S.-led coalition pushed IS out of its last stronghold in Syria in 2019.