Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi

ISIS announced the name of its new leader as well as a new spokesman Thursday after Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a American-led raid in Syria.

In an audio message released by official ISIS media channel al-Furqan Media, the new ISIS spokesman Abu Hamza al-Quraishi confirmed the death of now former ISIS emir al-Baghdadi as well as the former spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir and declared Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi the new emir/chief of the group while declaring himself the new spokesman.

Abu Hamza also stated that slain spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir was a minister and assistant of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The Shura Council of ISIS, after consultation, agreed to act upon Baghdadi’s will and pledge allegiance to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.

BREAKING: ISIS confirms the killing of its leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and his aide Abu Hasan Al-Muhajr by Americans. ISIS announces al-Hashimi al-Quraishi as the new caliph of ISIS.

— FJ (@Natsecjeff) October 31, 2019

While talking to ITCT Newsdesk, ITCT Deputy Director Faran Jeffery said, “There’s not much we can tell about the new ISIS emir and the new spokesman at this time. We are currently gathering more information on the two individuals. But we should expect ISIS to maintain some level of secrecy about their identities for now due to security reasons. ISIS has not released any image of its new emir either. But down the road, we can expect the new emir to eventually reveal himself, perhaps in a video. I also think that the death of al-Baghdadi will not mean the end of ISIS; in fact, quite the opposite. We may see a more resilient ISIS in the near future. ISIS supporters have already started dissemination of the audio message in several languages. For now what we can say definitely is that the new emir has some large shoes to fill.”

While al-Baghdadi’s death constitutes a significant blow to the militant group, ITCT experts warn that it will not necessarily result in an end to the ISIS terrorist group. ITCT experts also warn that ISIS supporters around the world will be seeking revenge for the death of al-Baghdadi and their most likely targets will be American and other Western targets.