By Spy Uganda
The chief of the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has been killed, according to reports.
The reports said that ISIS has named Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi as the new ISIS chief.
Reports cited the ISIS spokesperson as saying that Al-Qurashi died in a battle. Though the exact circumstances of the death are not known.
Abu Hasan’s death comes around eight months after its previous chief Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi was killed in a US operation. Abu Ibrahim was killed in a US operation on February 2 in Northwest Syria, announced US President Joe Biden at the time. No US personnel were killed in that operation.
In October 2019, the then-ISIS chief and the most well-known face of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US military operation. He was killed in Northwestern Syria’s Idlib province.
What Does ‘Al Qurashi’ Mean?
The current ISIS chief and the previous two chiefs share ‘Al Qurashi’ in their names. This is not their real name and it does not mean they are related.
‘Qurash’ was Prophet Muhammad’s tribe and the ISIS adds ‘Qurashi’ to their leaders’ names to portray them as the leader of the Muslim world.
“Like his predecessor, Abu al-Hassan selected a name designed to indicate he is a descendant of the Hashemite clan of the Qurashi tribe, which by bloodline would link him to Prophet Muhammed — an IS requirement for any would-be caliph,” say reports.
What’s ISIS?
ISIS also called the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), is a terrorist organization committed to establishing a Caliphate across the world. The Caliphate is a term ISIS uses for a state ruled by its strict interpretation of Sharia.
“ISIL’s stated goal is to solidify and expand its control of territory once ruled by early Muslim caliphs and to govern through the implementation of its strict interpretation of sharia,” says US Office of Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI) National Counterterrorism Center.
ISIS at its peak controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria where it had established a state of its own. But it has since been defeated there and it now relies on typical terrorist attacks and their affiliates in a different part of the world.
