Islamic State leader killed in battle

IRAQ: The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group said its leader has been killed in battle, the third head of the violent extremist faction to have met a violent death.

A spokesperson for the group said Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, an Iraqi, was killed “in combat with enemies of God”, without elaborating on the date of his death or the circumstances.

The US military’s Central Command said Hashimi had been killed in an operation carried out by rebels of the Free Syrian Army in Daraa province in southern Syria in mid-October. IS’s previous leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, was killed in February this year in a US raid in Idlib Province in northern Syria. - BBC NEWS