"We are looking into the leader, his role in the organization, where he came from," Sales said. "I don't have anything to announce on that obviously publicly. But anytime there is a leadership transition in a terrorist organization, we want to make sure that we have the latest information that we need to have to confront the threat.”
Earlier on Friday, President Donald Trump said that he knows the identity of the Daesh* new leader after the death of the terror group's head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US military raid. Trump provided no details about the identity of the new leader.
On Thursday, Daesh* gave the new leader’s name as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, a nom de guerre that appears to depict him as a member of the Quraysh tribe and descendant of the Islamic prophet Mohammed.
Baghdadi blew himself up along with two children on Saturday when he was cornered by the US military in his hideout in northern Syria, according to US officials.
Baghdadi’s immediate likely successor, Abu Hassan al-Muhajir, was killed in a US airstrike a day later, according to US officials.
*Daesh (also known as IS/ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State) is a terrorist group banned in Russia
