Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish intelligence killed Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, the leader of the Islamic State in Syria.
Erdogan said in an interview with TRT Turk that “this individual was neutralized as part of an operation carried out by the Turkish national intelligence organization in Syria yesterday.”
According to Erdogan, the intelligence service has been looking for Qurashi for a long time.
Locals and security authorities in Syria claimed the assault took place in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris, which is controlled by rebel forces backed by Turkey and was seriously damaged in the February 6 earthquake that affected both Turkey and Syria.
The Syrian National Army, which maintains a security presence in the area, did not issue an immediate comment.
An eyewitness stated that clashes broke out on the outskirts of Jandaris about midnight on Saturday into Sunday and lasted for an hour before people heard a large explosion. Security personnel later ringed the area to keep intruders at bay.
Following the death of the previous IS leader in an operation in southern Syria in November 2022, IS appointed al-Qurashi as its leader.
In 2014, the Islamic State, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, overran vast swathes of Iraq and Syria and declared an Islamic caliphate covering an area inhabited by millions of people.
Campaigns by US-backed Syrian and Iraqi troops, as well as Syrian forces supported by Iran, Russia, and other paramilitary organizations, helped drive IS out of the region.
Thousands of surviving militants have spent the previous few years hiding out in both countries’ rural areas, but they are still capable of carrying out large-scale hit-and-run attacks.
The US-led coalition and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue to execute operations against Islamic State (IS) commanders in Syria.
Turkey has used its considerable clout to pursue important Islamic State leaders hiding in other nations.
