Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on April 30 local time that the security forces of the Turkish National Intelligence Agency killed the top leader of the extremist organization “Islamic State” Abu Hussein Al Qureshi in an operation in Syria the day before.
Erdogan told Turkish Radio and Television that the Turkish National Intelligence Agency has been tracking Qureshi for “a considerable period of time” and “we will continue to fight against all terrorist organizations.”
According to Reuters, citing Syrian sources, the Turkish operation took place in the town of Janderis in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria. The Turkish-backed Syrian opposition armed “Syrian National Army” has a stronghold nearby.
Local residents said that there was a firefight outside the town of Jandales in the middle of the night on April 29, which lasted for about an hour and was followed by a loud explosion. The area where the incident occurred was blocked by the “Syrian National Army”.
The Syrian National Army has yet to issue a statement. The “Islamic State” also did not respond.
According to Agence France-Presse, Turkey has stationed troops in northern Syria since 2020 on the grounds of counter-terrorism and combating Kurdish forces. The Turkish army and the Syrian opposition forces it supports have previously launched operations against senior leaders of the “Islamic State” in northern Syria.
“Islamic State” announced in November last year that its top leader was dead, and Abu Hussein Al Qureshi was appointed as the new leader. Qureshi’s real name and nationality are not known. “Islamic State” personnel often use aliases.
According to the US military, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the first supreme leader of the “Islamic State”, died in October 2019 in the US military’s “targeted killing” operation.
The “Islamic State” once occupied large tracts of land in Syria and neighboring Iraq and declared its “capital” in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa. Since March 2019, the “Islamic State” has lost all its territory in Syria and Iraq, and has turned to guerrilla tactics, often launching attacks. At this stage, thousands of “Islamic State” militants are still active in Syria and Iraq.
Source: export.shobserver
