ISIS has confirmed the death of their leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and named his successor as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi on Thursday.
The announcement was made via a recording published by the media wing, al-Furqan of the terror group which was voiced by ISIS’ new spokesman, Abu Hamza al-Qarshi, who replaces former spokesman Abu Hasan al-Muhajir who was killed by US forces near Jarablus in northern Syria.
“America, do not be happy with the killing of Sheikh al-Baghdadi,” the new spokesman said in the recording. “Do you not realize that the State today is not only on the doorstep of Europe and in the center of Africa, it is staying and expanding from the east to the west.”
Baghdadi’s death marked the end of a years-long hunt to find one of the most wanted terrorists in the world.Prior to his death, Baghdadi had been in hiding for the last five years until April of this year where a man purporting to be Baghdadi appeared in a video which was released by the ISIS media wing al-Furqan.
