Turkish state media reported on Monday that the “supposed leader” of the Islamic State, whose death was announced by Ankara in an operation carried out by its intelligence in Syria on Saturday night, blew himself up with an explosive belt he was wearing.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkish forces killed the leader of ISIS in Syria, during an operation carried out by Turkish intelligence before Saturday in Syrian territory, indicating that the nom de guerre of the targeted person is “Abu al-Hasan al-Qurashi.”
On November 30, the extremist organization announced the killing of its former leader, Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, and the appointment of Abu al-Hussein al-Qurashi as his successor.
An AFP correspondent in northern Syria reported that elements of Turkish intelligence and the Turkish-backed local military police sealed off an area in Jenderes, in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria on Saturday.
Residents also told AFP that an operation targeted an abandoned farm in the area that was used as an Islamic school.
Turkey has been deploying forces in northern Syria since 2020, controlling entire regions with the support of Syrian factions.
On the other hand, Turkish sources revealed today, Monday, that the “supposed leader” of the Islamic State organization, whose death was announced by Ankara in an operation carried out by its intelligence in Syria on Saturday night, blew himself up with an explosive belt he was wearing.
On Monday, the official Anadolu news agency said that al-Qurashi was in a house that “contains a camouflaged underground bunker” in the Jenderes district of Afrin, neighboring Turkey.
Turkish media, including state TV channel TRT, published scenes showing a two-storey house surrounded by fields, its walls partly destroyed.
According to Anadolu Agency, “an appeal was sent to Al-Qurashi to surrender, but no response was received.”
As a result, the Turkish intelligence team blew up the walls of the garden of the house, then blew up the back doors and side walls and entered the building,” noting that al-Qurashi “detonated himself an explosive belt he was wearing after realizing that he would be arrested.”
And US forces launched a helicopter raid as part of an operation in northern Syria in mid-April targeting an official they accused of planning attacks in Europe and the Middle East.
Later, the US Central Command announced that the operation resulted in the killing of a prominent leader in the Islamic State, Abd al-Hadi Mahmoud al-Haj Ali.
An attack on April 16th by suspected fighters of the Islamic State in Syria killed at least 41 people, 24 of them civilians.
Although its fighters were expelled from most of the lands it controlled, the organization continues to launch attacks in Syria.
