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Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi
Juma Awad al-Badri

The leader of the so-called "Islamic State" group, Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, was killed during clashes in Syria's Idlib province, the terror group said in an undated audio recording published on Telegram on 27 July 2023. He reportedly died in "direct clashes" with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group with links to al-Qaeda. "He fought them until he succumbed to his wounds," IS spokesperson Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari said in the audio message. The group did not say when exactly al-Qurashi was killed. News of al-Qurashi's death first circulated in April 2023, when Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish intelligence forces had killed al-Qurashi in Syria.

The radical jihadi group "Islamic State" (IS) on 10 March 2022 released a statement confirming the death of former leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and announced that he had been replaced by Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. An audio statement said IS jihadis had "pledged allegiance to Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as an emir over believers and the caliph of Muslims."

Little is known about Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi. The statement said of its former leader, "Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi and the official Islamic State group spokesman Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi were killed in recent days." In fact, the former leader had been killed in a raid by US special forces operating in northwest Syria on 03 February 2022. He had replaced IS' first leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who met a similar fate at the hands of the US in October 2019.

The name "Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi" is a nom de guerre (literally “war name”), the assumed name, as one under which a person fights. This nom-de-guerre indicates that like his brother and his predecessor he claims to trace his lineage from the Prophet Mohammed, giving him religious clout among fellow militants. If this claim were disproven, his position as the religious leader of the "caliphate" could be called into question.

Prophet Muhammad was born into Mecca's powerful tribe, the Quraysh, also spelled Kuraish, or Koreish, the ruling tribe of Mecca at the time of the birth of the Prophet. The Quraysh were prosperous merchants controlling Mecca and trade in the region. Muhammad was born into the Hashemite clan of the Quraysh tribe. Presently the keys to the Kaaba are held by the Quraysh clan. Surah 106 in the Quran is directed at them.

Prophet Muhammad's grandson was Hasan ibn Ali, the son of Ali Ibn Abi Talib (RA) and Fatima bint Muhammad. There are two different Arabic names that are both romanized with the spelling "Hassan". When the Commander of the faithful, peace be on him, died, al- Hasan addressed the people. He reminded them of his right (to authority). The followers of his father pledged allegiance to him in terms of fighting those he fought and making peace with those with whom he made peace.

No one was more like the Apostle of God, may God bless him and his family, than al-Hasan b. Ali, peace be on them. [Ibrahim b. Ali al-Rafi'i reported on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandmother Zaynab, daughter of Abu Rafi' - and Shabib b. Abi Rafi' al-Rafi'i on the authority of those who told him - she said.]

The group's new leader takes the helm of an outfit much depleted since the days when it held sway over large swaths of Syria and Iraq, and controlled the fate of millions in the region. It ascended to the top of the region's Islamist terror outfits shortly after breaking away from another renowned jihadi group, al-Qaeda, in 2014. The group's grip on the region was eventually broken in 2019 in an effort led by US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq.

A UN report issued in 2021 estimated that as many as 10,000 IS fighters remain active in Iraq and Syria, where they continue to attack both Kurdish forces and those of the Syrian government of Russian-backed strongman Bashar Assad. The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), an Israeli terror research organization, claims IS carried out 2,705 attacks in 2021, resulting in 8,147 casualties. Most of the attacks carried out by the group in 2021 were centered in Afghanistan, where it inflicted more than 2,200 casualties. The majority of those occurred after the US and Western allies withdrew troops in mid-2021. That was slightly higher than in Iraq, where the ITIC said it caused 2,083 casualties.

Reuters reported 11 March 2022 that the new leader of ISIS is the brother of slain former caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to two Iraqi security officials and one Western security source. The new leader’s real name is Juma Awad al-Badri, he is Iraqi and Baghdadi’s elder brother, two Iraqi security officials told Reuters. Badri had recently moved across the border from Syria, where he has been holed up, and into Iraq. A Western security official confirmed the two men were brothers, but did not specify which was older. It is the first time this has been revealed since ISIS announced the new leader.

Little is known about Badri, but he comes from a close circle of battle-hardened Iraqi militants who emerged in the aftermath of the 2003 US invasion. Badri is a radical who joined salafi [terrorist] groups in 2003 and was known to always accompany Baghdadi as a personal companion and Islamic legal adviser,” one of the Iraqi security officials said. The official said Badri has long been head of ISIS’ Shura Council, a leadership group that guides strategy and decides succession when a caliph is killed or captured.

Research by the late Iraqi ISIS expert Hisham al-Hashemi published online in 2020 said Badri was leader of the five-member Shura Council. Daesh had two advisory councils (Shura) of five members, one led by al-Baghdadi's brother, Hajji Juma Awad al-Badri, and a "delegated committee" (the most important command body) also composed of five members. This body was chaired by Sami Jassim al-Jubori. Each member of this committee is in charge of a "portfolio", security, infrastructure, religious affairs, propaganda and finances. The main difference with the previous organization is that the “delegated committee” has transferred many tasks to decentralized levels which operate semi-autonomously and are self-financing.

Iraqi intelligence officials revealed that Badri was his brother's most trusted messenger, who had travelled from northern Syria to Istanbul, Turkey, to deliver and retrieve information about the group's operations. 'We were watching somebody who was acting as a messenger to Al Baghdadi and he was travelling frequently to Turkey and back,' a senior Iraqi intelligence official told The National. 'He was Al Baghdadi's brother.'

He was first noticed by security services crossing the Syrian-Turkish border at the end of 2018 before he appeared in Istanbul, according to the report. He made several more trips until April 2020 before returning to north-western Syria, where his brother was finally tracked down and died. Iraqi security officials said they cultivated a source who would tell them what was in Juma's messages, and they said it showed Baghdadi was in full control of the group even as he went to great lengths to evade detection after losing territory in Syria and Iraq. 'He was delivering messages from ISIS commanders in Iraq – the state of their forces, money, logistics, routes,' the agent said. 'He was in contact with commanders here.'

'Badri is a radical who joined salafi jihadist groups in 2003 and was known to always accompany Baghdadi as a personal companion and Islamic legal adviser,' one of the Iraqi security officials told Reuters.