Turkish-occupied areas in Syria become safe haven for ISIS leaders
ERBIL, KRI, Iraq (North Press) – Three senior leaders of the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) were killed and another was arrested during the past three years in a series of operations that grasped attention of many since all of them were implemented in areas controlled by the Turkish army and its affiliated Syrian opposition factions in northwest Syria.
The leaders were targeted one by one through special operations and airdrop, first in 2019 in Idlib where Abu Baker al-Baghdadi was targeted and the last target was Maher al-Agel, who was killed in the city of Afrin, north Syria, on Tuesday.
All these operations were carried out on a geography run by one power, revealing common indications that attract the attention, according to analyses and opinions of local and international observers.
On Tuesday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the killing of one of the top five ISIS leaders and the leader of ISIS in Syria, Maher al-Agal in a strike in northwest of Aleppo.
Al-Agal was also responsible for “pursuing the development of ISIS networks outside of Iraq and Syria.”
Military operations in “liberated” areas
Al-Agal was killed near the town of Jindires in Afrin, as well as one of his top assistant was seriously injured.
Turkey and its affiliated factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), occupy Afrin along with al-Bab, Jarablus, the northern countryside of Idlib and other areas, as they claim that they liberated those areas.
The recent US strike came five months after the killing of the ISIS leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, by US special forces in the town of Atme in Idlib, northwest Syria.
Military operations of hunting ISIS leaders began with the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate over vast areas in Iraq and Syria in 2014, in a raid launched by the US special forces in Idlib countryside in 2019.
His killing coincided with the military collapse of the extremist group in Syria by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with the support of the US-led Global Coalition.
Al-Baghdadi was killed in the village of Barisha in the northern countryside of Idlib in northwestern Syria, which is also an area held by the Syrian opposition factions, including Ahrar al-Sham.
In mid-June, the Global Coalition forces carried out an airdrop operation in Jarablus, northern Syria, which is also a liberated area as Turkey and SNA factions claim.
The operation resulted in the arrest of a senior ISIS leader Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi, who was an “experienced bomb maker and operational facilitator” for ISIS in Syria, according to the coalition.
Common strategy
Apart from the explanations that reveal Turkey’s relationship with the presence of ISIS leaders in its areas of control in northwest Syria, the Iraqi analyst Ali al-Baydar told North Press that it is not good for the NATO member Turkey to be associated with ISIS.
He went further saying that dealing with ISIS is no longer in the favor of any country to use it to achieve its interests.
Although it is not a coincidence that most of the extremist leaders exist in the same geography run by the same authority, the Iraqi analyst said that; It is a strategy that extremist organizations used to follow.
Most of the leaders, including those who led al-Qaeda such as Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, were hiding, prior to their killing, in places that should have not aroused interest and suspicion, as well as made them feel safe.
The military analyst Ahmad Rahhal described al-Agal, who was killed in the last operation, as the mastermind for the extremist group, and a new successor to the revival of ISIS.
Speaking of the relation between the members of the organization and the nature of the forces controlling the geography in which the operations were carried out, Rahhal said “There are many questions, namely, how did al-Agal reach areas of the west of the Euphrates? How was he able to stay in an area held by Turkey and among the factions affiliated to it? How was he holding a motorcycle driving license issued by the local council in Afrin?”
“It seems that the American system has been able to build an integrated network, and therefore it is able to reach any goal it wants to target without the need to move forces.”