The ISIL leader Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi has been killed in a battle recently, the armed group’s spokesman said in an audio released without elaborating on the date of his death or the circumstances, News.az reports Al Jazeera.

Al-Hashimi, an Iraqi, died “fighting the enemies of God killing”, Abu Omar al-Muhajer, the spokesman, said on Wednesday.

He announced Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi as the group’s new leader.

“He is one of the veteran warriors and one of the loyal sons of the Islamic State [of Iraq and the Levant],” al-Muhajer said.

Little had been known about al-Quraishi, who took over the group’s leadership following the death of his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, in a US raid in February in northwest Syria’s Idlib province. None of the al-Quraishis is believed to be related.

The death marked a blow to the armed group that was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later. But sleeper cells of the armed group still carry out attacks in both countries.