Daash leader is killed in Iraq

Al-Qahtani apparently succeeded another Saudi, Othman Al-Asiri, as mufti of the extremist Islamic State after Al-Asiri was killed in Syria last year.

Al-Asiri, who had a Ph.D. in jurisprudence, was previously fired from the faculty of King Khalid University in Abha for sympathizing with the Al-Qaeda network. Al-Asiri had also been previously arrested in the Kingdom for killing seven people in a car accident.

Sources said Al-Asiri had joined IS terrorist group and had held several training sessions for group members in Aleppo and Latakia prior to his death.

Earlier reports said a number of Saudi militants have abandoned the so-called Islamic State after they were disillusioned with the group's activities.

Known previously as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the terrorist group had been engaged in a deadly rivalry with other Takfiri groups triggering insurgency in Syria and Iraq.