IS leader killed in Syria thanks to Turkish intelligence?
(Baonghean.vn) - Recently, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said that his country's intelligence forces had killed the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) organization Abu Hussein al-Qurashi in Syria.
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Mr. Erdogan met with several Turkish politicians in Ankara on April 27. Photo: Reuters |
In an interview with TRT Turk TV channel on April 30 (local time), Mr. Erdogan said: "This person was eliminated in an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organization in Syria on April 29."
Leader Erdogan affirmed that the above intelligence organization had been hunting Qurashi for a long time.
Syrian security and local sources said the raid took place in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris, which is under the control of Turkish-backed rebel groups and was one of the hardest hit areas in the earthquake that struck both Turkey and Syria on February 6.
The Syrian National Army, an opposition group with a security presence in the area, has not commented on the matter.
A resident said the fighting started from the outskirts of Jandaris on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, lasting about an hour before locals heard a loud explosion.
The area was then surrounded by security forces to prevent anyone from approaching.
According to Reuters, IS chose al-Qurashi as its leader in November 2022 after the previous IS leader was killed in a campaign in southern Syria.
IS seized large areas of Iraq and Syria in 2014, and the terrorist organization's leader at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a self-styled Islamic state spanning territory that was home to millions of people.
However, IS gradually lost power over the above territory after campaigns deployed by US-backed forces in Syria and Iraq, along with Syrian forces backed by Iran, Russia and many paramilitary forces.
In recent years, IS still has thousands of fighters, mostly hiding in remote areas of both Syria and Iraq. However, they still have the ability to carry out large-scale attacks in a surprise attack style.
The US-led coalition, along with the Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is still conducting raids on IS officials in Syria. In some cases, senior IS figures have been targeted while hiding in areas where Turkey has significant influence.
