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Questions about Pledge of Allegiance to the New ISIS Leader

Libyan forces attack ISIS sites during the “Al-Bonyan Al-Marsous” operation in Sirte 2016. (Getty Images)
Libyan forces attack ISIS sites during the “Al-Bonyan Al-Marsous” operation in Sirte 2016. (Getty Images)
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Questions about Pledge of Allegiance to the New ISIS Leader

Libyan forces attack ISIS sites during the “Al-Bonyan Al-Marsous” operation in Sirte 2016. (Getty Images)
Libyan forces attack ISIS sites during the “Al-Bonyan Al-Marsous” operation in Sirte 2016. (Getty Images)

Days after ISIS announced the appointment of “Abul-Hussein Al-Husseini Al-Qurashi” to lead the organization, succeeding “Abul-Hassan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi”, and the organization’s call to pledge allegiance to the “new leader,” experts in the affairs of international terrorism said the development raised ambiguities.

A Syrian security source had confirmed the death of “Abul-Hassan al-Qurashi” in a military operation by the Syrian army, a month and a half ago in the south of the country, according to the official news agency (SANA).

On Wednesday, ISIS announced the killing of Abul-Hassan in battles, without disclosing a specific date or location. But Washington said that he had been killed in mid-October in southern Syria.

Mounir Adeeb, an Egyptian researcher in extremist movements and international terrorism, told Asharq Al-Awsat that ISIS was withholding information and maintaining secrecy.

“It is difficult to determine the identity of “Abul-Hussein Al-Husseini” because the organization has used a nickname, not his real name…” he remarked.

The leaders of ISIS are usually known by more than one nickname. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed by a US strike in Idlib, northwestern Syria, in October 2019, held other names including, Ibrahim Awad al-Badri and Abu Duaa al-Samarrai.

Similarly, “Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi,” who was killed in a US strike in northern Idlib, western Syria, on Feb. 3, was also called Haji Abdullah Qaradish and Abu Omar Qaradish. Some indicated that “Abul-Hassan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi” was also named Zaid Al-Iraqi and Jumaa Awad Al-Badri.

A well-informed source stated that the organization’s reticence in announcing the real identity of its new leader might raise ambiguity over the validity of the pledge of allegiance.

The appointment of “Abul-Hussein” could be a form of cover-up, to hide the reality of the ongoing dispute within the organization, the source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

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Kremlin Says Putin Remains Open to Ukraine Talks but is Carving out a Bigger Buffer Zone

People walk on the Red Square outside the Kremlin on a summer day in downtown Moscow, Russia, 26 June 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People walk on the Red Square outside the Kremlin on a summer day in downtown Moscow, Russia, 26 June 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
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Kremlin Says Putin Remains Open to Ukraine Talks but is Carving out a Bigger Buffer Zone

People walk on the Red Square outside the Kremlin on a summer day in downtown Moscow, Russia, 26 June 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV
People walk on the Red Square outside the Kremlin on a summer day in downtown Moscow, Russia, 26 June 2026. EPA/MAXIM SHIPENKOV

The Kremlin said on Friday that President Vladimir Putin remained open to achieving Russia's objectives through diplomacy, but that Moscow was carving out a wider buffer ‌zone in ‌Ukraine in ‌response ⁠to Kyiv's escalatory actions.

Kremlin ⁠spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about a Reuters article a day ⁠earlier in which ‌three ‌sources close to the Kremlin ‌told Reuters that ‌Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russia's oil refineries and ports were strengthening Putin's ‌resolve to keep fighting for now.

Peskov ⁠said ⁠Russia believed that Kyiv had no desire for talks at the moments and that Moscow was therefore continuing its military campaign in Ukraine.

World

WHO Official: Congo Ebola Outbreak Still Spreading Largely Undetected

FILE PHOTO: Congolese health workers receive a patient at the Rwampara General Hospital as authorities intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain outbreak in Rwampara outside Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Congolese health workers receive a patient at the Rwampara General Hospital as authorities intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain outbreak in Rwampara outside Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer//File Photo
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WHO Official: Congo Ebola Outbreak Still Spreading Largely Undetected

FILE PHOTO: Congolese health workers receive a patient at the Rwampara General Hospital as authorities intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain outbreak in Rwampara outside Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Congolese health workers receive a patient at the Rwampara General Hospital as authorities intensify efforts to contain a new Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain outbreak in Rwampara outside Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 21, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer//File Photo

Four out of every five new Ebola cases in parts of Democratic Republic of Congo have no known link to existing patients, a senior World Health Organization official said, warning that the true scale of the outbreak could be two to four times larger than official data suggest.

The figures underscore the challenges facing health workers as they battle to contain the outbreak in the country's northeast, which has so far infected 1,792 people and killed 625, according to government data released on Thursday.

"Eighty percent of the... new patients confirmed are coming outside of known contact lists” in ⁠the heart of ⁠the outbreak in Bunia, Ituri province, WHO Emergencies Director Chikwe Ihekweazu told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday.

In areas with fewer cases, like North Kivu province, almost all new cases are coming from the contact lists, he added, a sign of some progress.

WHO estimates based on modelling and test positivity rates suggest the outbreak, which was declared in mid-May, may be between ⁠two and four times larger than the number of confirmed cases, he said.

About 90% of all reported cases remain concentrated in Ituri province, particularly in the health zones of Bunia, Rwampara, Mongbwalu and Nyakunde, where transmission remains intense. But the virus has also spread beyond the epicenter to North Kivu province, South Kivu province and, more recently, Tshopo province.

In Bunia, Ituri's capital and a city of one million, roughly one in two patients tested for Ebola turns out to be positive, a sign of intense, ongoing community transmission, Ihekweazu said.

Preliminary evidence suggests the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus may cause milder symptoms than other types, reducing ⁠risk perceptions among affected ⁠communities and leading some families to care for sick relatives at home before seeking treatment.

While that appears to improve survival rates among patients who reach treatment centers, it also means infected people may remain in the community longer and continue transmitting the virus.

"Patients are out there much longer than we would like," Ihekweazu said. "The longer patients are outside of care, the more likely they are to transmit this illness."

Community deaths also remain a major concern. An analysis of the first 400 Ebola deaths in the outbreak found that roughly 70% occurred outside treatment centers, he said.

Strengthening surveillance remains the biggest challenge for the response, he said.

Authorities this week began training 21,000 community health workers to conduct house-to-house visits, identify suspected cases and encourage people with symptoms to seek care.

World

At Least 1 Million Women Have Lost Access to Aid after Funding Cuts, UN Says

FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
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At Least 1 Million Women Have Lost Access to Aid after Funding Cuts, UN Says

FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)
FILE -Women and children fetch water at dusk in the Korsi Refugee Camp in Birao, the Central African Republic, March 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly, File)

At least 1 million women have lost access to humanitarian and other critical support as a result of budget cuts over the last 18 months, the UN agency focusing on women said Friday.

UN Women says 84% of women's organizations surveyed had reported increased needs since January 2025, when the Trump administration in the United States — the biggest UN donor — took office and began cutbacks in foreign aid.

"Every dollar withdrawn from women’s organizations is a dollar withdrawn from survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, displaced mothers, girls forced from school and communities struggling to survive,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s chief of humanitarian action.

Nearly 90% of the women's groups surveyed said they can't meet current levels of need anymore, and one in five said they expect to shut down temporarily or permanently within the next year.

“UN Women has spoken to 855 women’s organizations working in 52 countries, who have told us that these women and girls have been turned away due to funding cuts that are dismantling their organizations," Calltorp told reporters in Geneva.

"We know that this number, at least 1 million women and girls, is just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.

Conflict-related sexual violence had doubled last year, UN Women said. It noted a recent report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 38 mostly developed countries, that found that development assistance fell by nearly a quarter last year to $174 billion — the largest yearly contraction on record.

“Without immediate action, the organizations that have kept women and girls alive through the world’s worst crises risk becoming another casualty of war,” Calltorp said.

Many UN organizations have cut thousands of jobs and reduced aid programs around the world over the last 18 months in the wake of funding cuts by the United States and other top donors.

The world body, as part of a reform process known as UN80, has been considering the prospect of merging UN Women with UNFPA, the sexual and reproductive health agency.