Islamic State (IS) confirmed on Thursday the death of its leader Abu Ibrahim Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi and its spokesperson Abu Hamza Al-Quraishi, and announced Abu Al-Hassan Al-hashemi Al-Quraishi as its new chief, Reuters reported.

Quraishi, a religious scholar and soldier in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s army who led IS from the shadows for a little over two years, died in a U.S. special forces raid in northern Syria in February when he detonated a bomb that killed him and family members, the U.S. administration said.

IS did not deny or confirm the U.S. narrative, and the new IS spokesman, Abu Umar al Muhajir, said in a recorded speech on Thursday that Quraishi's last battle wasat Ghuwayran prison in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasaka.

At least 200 prison inmates and militants as well as 30 security forces died in an Islamic State attack on the jail in January in a bid to free their members, officials have said.