December 1, 2022
The following report is now a complimentary offering from MEMRI’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information, click here.
ISIS Announces Death Of Its Third Leader, Appoints Fourth
On November 30, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) Al-Furqan official media outlet released an audio message by the organization’s spokesman, Abu ‘Umar Al-Muhajir, announcing the killing in battle of ISIS leader Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi and the appointment of a new leader, Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi. The ISIS spokesman urged all Muslims to immediately swear fealty to Abu Al-Husayn, as it is forbidden for a Muslim “to spend two nights without pledging allegiance to an Imam.”[1] The appointment of Abu Al-Hasan, the third ISIS caliph, had been announced in March 2022[2] following the killing of the second ISIS leader, Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi, who succeeded the organization’s founder, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, after he was killed in October 2019.[3]
It should be noted that ISIS has never disclosed the identities of its second, third, or fourth leaders. Although it is widely assumed that Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi was the nom de guerre of Amir Muhammad Sa’id ‘Abd Al-Rahman Al-Mawla Al-Slibi aka Hajji ‘Abdallah Qardash, the identity of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi was the subject of speculation among media outlets and analysts, who suggested several names, most prominently Bashar Khattab Ghazal Al-Sumayda’i aka Hajji Zayd and Jum’ah ‘Awwad Al-Badri, the older brother of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.[4] So far, the identity of Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi remains completely unknown.