IS leader stayed hidden as he rebuilt his group from defeat

By BASSEM MROUE
Asssociated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of the Islamic State group killed in a U.S. raid overnight in northwest Syria was largely a mystery, with almost no known photos, never appearing in public or in the group’s videos. Known as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, he met his end in the same rebel-held Idlib province where his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was hunted by the Americans more than two years ago, some distance from the main theaters in eastern Syria and Iraq where the group once held vast swaths of territory in a self-declared “caliphate.” His death comes as IS militants, after years of low-level hit-and-run ambushes, have begun to carry out bolder, higher-profile attacks.