Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi[17][b] (Arabic: أبو إبراهيم الهاشمي القرشي, romanized: Abū Ibrāhīm al-Hāshimī al-Qurashī;[20] born Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi (Arabic: أمير محمد عبد الرحمن المولى الصلبي, romanized: Amīr Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Mawlā al-Ṣalibi);‎[11] 1 or 5 October 1976 – 3 February 2022)[10] was an Iraqi militant and the second caliph[c][24] of the Islamic State.

His appointment by a shura council was announced by the Islamic State media on 31 October 2019, less than a week after the death of previous leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

[25] Al-Qurashi's tenure as caliph saw the Islamic State being mostly limited to insurgent activity in the Middle East,[12] but also make substantial advances in Africa, where IS increased its territories and influence.

[32] Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, believed that it was unlikely that the Islamic State would "release any video speeches from this new leader or at least ones that show his face".

[18] Nonetheless, on 1 November 2019, then U.S. president Donald Trump stated on social media that the U.S. government had identified al-Qurashi's true identity.

[37] On 20 January 2020, The Guardian released a report confirming al-Qurashi's true identity as Amir Mohammed Abdul Rahman al-Mawli al-Salbi.

[38] On 20 May 2020, the Iraqi Intelligence Service identified a captured militant as al-Qurashi; however, the military clarified that this was actually Abdul Nasser Qardash, a potential successor to al-Baghdadi.

[42] Based on a later IS biography of al-Qurashi, regional expert Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi argued that he was "Turkmen by language, not necessarily racial lineage".

[12] Following his release, al-Qurashi rejoined al-Qaeda's ISI and began to work under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group's new regional commander for Iraq.

[44] In the following Northern Iraq offensive (June 2014), he led IS forces in the capture of Tal Afar and later also commanded troops in the Battle of Zumar.

[16] Along with Abu Layth Al-Ansari,[16] he was one of the main Islamic State leaders who orchestrated the genocidal mass killings of Yazidis during the Sinjar massacre in August of that year.

[11][50] The Islamic State also systematically enslaved captured Yazidi women; this move was controversial within the organization, with many Iraqi commanders opposing the practice.

Al-Qurashi reportedly played a major role in suppressing the internal dissent and killed several IS members who had voiced misgivings over Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's leadership.

He also continued to work on reforming the internal structure of IS, restructuring the old ministries to focus solely on military activity and firing unnecessary IS officials.

[18] Some analysts believed that Baghdadi's death would likely cause the Islamic State to splinter, "leaving whoever emerges as its new leader with the task of pulling the group back together as a fighting force".

[52] However, other analysts believed that Baghdadi's death would not have much of an impact on the Islamic State "in terms of operational capacity" and that it was likely "not to result in the group's demise, or really even bring about a decline".

[22] At the time of his appointment as IS leader, al-Qurashi was believed to covertly operate in eastern Syria, probably in territory held by the Syrian Democratic Forces.

[37] However, al-Qurashi demonstrated his control over IS by coordinating the "Vengeance for the Two Sheikhs" campaign from late December 2019 to January 2020, an operation consisting of many terrorist attacks in several countries which were supposed to act as revenge for the deaths of al-Baghdadi and IS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir.

The UN Security Council suggested that the Islamic State feared that al-Qurashi lacked some credentials that were usually necessary for a caliph, and kept him out of the spotlight so as to not endanger his position.

The Islamic State's West Africa Province had massively expanded its influence in the Sahel, and IS branches had opened new fronts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique.

[26] The pro-IS biography on his life also emphasized his alleged role in the IS expansion in East Asia and in "revitalis[ing] the centrality of Iraq and al-Sham in the war on the idolaters".

[16] In September 2021, a U.S. spy drone spotted a bearded man missing his right leg sun bathing atop a three-story building in northwest Syria, which matched the physical description of al-Quraishi.

[29] On 3 February 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that U.S. military forces had successfully undertaken a counterterrorism operation in Atme, resulting in the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.

[29] Following the explosion, U.S. special operations commandos entered the building and engaged in a firefight with survivors, including a lieutenant of al-Qurashi, who was also killed.

[70] The area is also known to receive and host migrating families from various war-torn regions making identification and surveillance difficult and an ideal spot for al-Qurashi and others to hide.

[26] A day after the killing making the front page, The New York Times also claimed that his death, while a blow to IS, does not change the long term dynamic.

[75][76] In 2023, one year after his death, a brief biography of Abu Ibrahim Al-Hashimi emerged online in prominent Islamic State supporter circles.

[77] On 14 February, The Global Network on Extremism and Technology speculated that the group was "biding its time to carefully craft a response that will maintain some semblance of authority".

[77] An article from Deutsche Welle stated that Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi would be difficult to replace, as many potential leaders had died in the years preceding Al-Qurashi's death.

[78] On 9 February, Egyptian newspaper Al-Watan identified the following individuals as likely candidates:[79] On 2 March, The Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Terrorism provided a different list of likely candidates:[77] On 10 March 2022, IS confirmed the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi and declared that Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi had assumed the position of caliph.