ISIS confirms death of leader a month after he blew himself up during US raid
ISIS officially confirmed the death of its leader for the first time on Thursday — a month after the terrorist blew up himself and his entire family as US special forces closed in on him in Syria.
Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi’s demise was addressed in a statement by the terror group’s spokesman.
He has been replaced by Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, the spokesman added.
President Biden had already revealed last month that the 45-year-old ISIS leader killed himself, his wife and two children during a US operation to capture him on Feb. 3.
Abu Ibrahim had detonated an explosive on the third floor of a building in the Syrian village of Atmeh that sent rubble and bodies flying into the street below.
At the time, Biden called Abu Ibrahim’s suicide “a final act of desperate cowardice.”
“With no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up … rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him,” Biden said.
“[The] operation took a major terrorist leader off the battlefield, and it sent a strong message to terrorists around the world: We will come after you and find you.”
His death was a crushing blow to ISIS after the terror group lost its longtime leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a similar raid in 2019.
Abu Ibrahim had led the jihadist group since al-Baghdadi’s slaying.
With Post wires
