Turkish President announces killing ISIS leader in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish intelligence forces killed Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hussein al-Qurayshi in Syria. The announcement came as the Turkish elections approached.
Erdogan said in an interview with TRT Turk broadcaster, “This individual was neutralized as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organization in Syria.”
The intelligence organization had pursued al-Qurashi for a long time, Erdogan added.
Director of the Media Center of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Farhad Shami said, in a tweet, that al-Qurayshi was stationed in a military post belonging to Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction, affiliated with Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka Syrian National Army (SNA), and was killed in the Turkish-occupied town of Jindires, northwest Syria.
“There is nothing new about this incident except for the end of a mission of an ISIS member that had long been protected by Turkish intelligence in occupied Afrin,” Shami said.
Hundreds of ISIS militants move in the Turkish occupied Syrian areas, as several leaders were killed there in the recent years.
In July 2022, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the killing of one of the top five ISIS leaders and the leader of ISIS in Syria, in a strike in Jindires.
In December 2022, the British Ministry of Defense announced the targeting of an ISIS leader in the city of al-Bab, in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, northern Syria.
In the same month, another ISIS leader was wounded in an airstrike, likely by the US-led Global Coalition, which targeted his home in al-Bab.
The city of al-Bab has been under the control of the Turkish forces and the SNA factions since 2017.