ISIS leader killed in Syria during Turkish Special Forces operation

Middle East, News May 4, 2023 , by IRIA No Comments

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Hussein Al-Qureshi on May 2, 2023. Qureshi was killed after he detonated a suicide vest during a raid operation by the Turkish special forces in Jindires, Syria.

Erdogan told Turkey’s national broadcaster during an interview that Turkish intelligence had been monitoring the alleged leader of the hardline group for a long time before launching their operation.

“This individual was neutralized as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organization in Syria,” he said. “We will continue our struggle with terrorist organizations without any discrimination,” the Turkish president added.

According to the local security officials in Syria, the operation took place in the Syrian town of Jinderes, located in the northern part of the country. The town is under the control of Turkish-backed rebel groups and it was among the most affected areas in the February 6 earthquake that hit both Turkey and Syria.

The area has become the most significant ISIS hideout in the region after the group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and Syria in 2019. After facing a defeat in Syria by the hand of Turkish and other allied forces, members and supporters of ISIS started to slip across the remote stretches along 600 kilometers Iraqi-Syrian border.

The compound allegedly housing #ISIS’s global leader was located outside the town of #Jinderes, surrounded by fields of olive trees.

The area was hit very hard by the earthquake, resulting in many visits by foreign media & some aid groups.

See these images from @faizaldoghim060 pic.twitter.com/2M3oqTesTk
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) April 30, 2023

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) was the mastermind behind the four-hour-long operation; however, MIT did not release the details about the operations so far. Some photos from the operation site show metal and cinderblock debris scattered across a compound located in the middle of large olive fields.

Qureshi was ISIS’s third leader and took control of the organization in November 2022, after the death of his predecessor Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qureshi. Since its inception in 2014, the ISIS group took control of vast territories in Iraq and Syria. The regional political instability and security situation paved the way for the organization to thrive in the borderlands of both countries and expand its operation beyond Iraq and Syria. Its head at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared an Islamic caliphate across an area that was home to millions of people.

The group lost its grip in the region after several forces joined together to eradicate the extremist group. U.S.-backed forces in Syria and Iraq, as well as Syrian forces backed by Iran and Russia, conducted several operations to weaken the group and take control of ISIS territories.

*^{Turkish soldiers patrolling in Syria. (Image Credit: Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri/Anadolu Agency)}*

ISIS has lost a lot of its fighters while many have surrendered. Its remaining fighters are now scattered and hiding in remote areas in Syria and Iraq, where they plan and launch small-scale operations against security forces in the region.