President Erdogan is reportedly to make an announcement on the supposed capture of Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the third Caliph of ISIS. According to local news the Istanbul Police Chief led an operation that captured al-Qurashi, supposedly without a shot fired.
In March of 2022, newly appointed ISIS spokesperson (who took over after the last spokesperson was killed in an airstrike) announced that Abu al-Hassan succeeded predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi after killing himself in a U.S. Special Forced raid in Atme, Syria on February 3rd, 2022.
While no pictures or confirmed legal name of Abu al-Hassan are publicly available, Al Ain News reported that al-Qurashi’s real name is Zaid al-Iraq and that he is Iraqi and was the Emir of the Diwan of Education.
However, according to two unnamed Iraqi security officials, al-Qurashi’s real name is Juma Awad al-Badri, and he is the elder brother of former IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Research by Iraqi historian Hisham al-Hashimi published in 2020 stated that al-Qurashi was head of the five-member Shura Council.
The Turkish announcement is sure to clear up these conflicting narratives if the news of the capture is accurate.
