We know exactly who he is: Trump says US is aware of new Islamic State chief

Washington, Nov 01: President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States knows who the Islamic State group's new leader is, after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US-led commando raid.

"ISIS has a new leader. We know exactly who he is!" Trump said in a tweet.

Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world's most dreaded man, died in a US special forces raid in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Sunday.

The Islamic State group is mourning the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and has announced a successor in a new audio release.

The group identified the new leader as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi in the audio released Thursday by the IS central media arm, al-Furqan Foundation.

However, little is known about Hashimi, whose name was seldom mentioned as a possible successor the multiple times that Baghdadi was falsely reported killed in recent years.

Baghdadi stayed out of the limelight for long. He would release audio and video clips at regular intervals, but since 2015, the frequency dropped considerably. Baghdadi had in September released an audio message with the title 'Do Deeds.'

Since 2016 there have been numerous claims about the death of ISIS chief, who calls himself the Caliph. Russia had claimed that he had been killed, following which Amaq, the official news agency of the ISIS had also said that their leader had died.