Beirut: The death of Daesh's leader Abu Al-Hussein Al-Husseini Al-Qurashi, who the group claimed was killed in fighting in northwest Syria, was announced on Thursday.

A Daesh spokesman stated in a recorded message posted on its channels on the Telegram messaging app that the leader "was killed after direct clashes" with the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham organisation in the province of Idlib, without providing a timeframe for when he was killed.

The fifth leader of the group, Abu Hafs Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi, was named by the spokesman.

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Following a swift ascent in 2014 that saw it seize large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria, Daesh witnessed its self-declared "caliphate" crumble under a barrage of offensives.

Mass shootings and beheadings were frequent during the extremist group's stern and terror-filled rule.

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Sleeper cells continue to conduct attacks in both Iraq and Syria despite the fact that it was defeated in both countries in 2017.

Daesh claimed the death of Abu Hasan Al-Hashimi Al-Qurashi in November of last year.

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In a US raid in the province of Idlib in February of last year, his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim Al-Qurashi, was killed.

Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the group's first "caliph," was assassinated in October 2019 in Idlib