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The suspected leader of ISIS has been killed in an operation carried out by Turkish forces in northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.
‘The suspected leader of Daesh, codename Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, has been neutralised in an operation carried out yesterday (Saturday) by the MIT in Syria,’ he announced on television.
The news comes as Erdogan looks to recover support ahead of the presidential elections on 14 May. He has been in the role since 2014 but faces waning support in key areas.
Local outlets said Turkish intelligence agents and local military police, backed by Turkey, had on Saturday sealed off a zone in Jindires, in the northwest region of Afrine, about four miles from the Turkish border.
Al-Qurashi’s predecessor, Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi, was killed last November.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) said the suspected leader of the ISIS has been killed in Syria in an operation carried out by his country’s MIT intelligence agency
Erdogan told Turkish media that intelligence forces had killed Qurashi near the border
Residents said an operation had targeted an abandoned farm that was being used as an Islamic school.
Turkey’s national intelligence organisation, MIT, launched the operation at around 1am on Saturday and reportedly breached the house, clashing with ISIS fighters.
BNO News reported they were able to surround the ISIS leader, who blew himself up with explosives strapped to his body.
Erdogan said that Turkish intelligence had ‘been tracking the so-called leader of Daesh, Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, for a long time’.
The United States carried out a helicopter raid in northern Syria in an operation in mid-April, saying the Islamic State group had been planning attacks in Europe and the Middle East.
US Central Command said they had killed a senior leader of the group in the operation.
Al-Qurashi had become ISIS’s fourth leader in only November, after Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi was killed while fighting in Syria.
Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi had only been in the role a matter of months, replacing former chief Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, who also killed himself in a bomb explosion during a US raid in February 2022 in northwestern Syria.
Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi led ISIS from 2019 after the death of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed by American forces in 2019 after years spent in hiding.
Al-Baghdadi was found by attack dogs in an underground tunnel in northwestern Syria.
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At its peak, ISIS controlled approximately one-third of Syria and Iraq in 2014.
Despite having been driven out of much of the territory it once controlled, the Islamic State group still launches attacks in Syria.
A number of ISIS leaders have been killed in recent years in war-torn Syria
Pictured: a masked ISIS soldier with banner in the deserts of Syria or Iraq, in 2015. Al-Qurashi became the group’s leader last year after Abu al-Hasan al-Hasmi al-Qurayshi also died in Syria
ISIS confirmed Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi (pictured) was killed early last year and pledged allegiance to Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi in March 2022, before he was killed in November and replaced by Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, reportedly killed on Sunday
The news comes at a vital time for Erdogan, who is looking to recover support in key areas ahead of the presidential elections on 14 May.
He was made Prime Minister in 2003 until 2014, and has since been in power as President.
Erdogan has overseen a number of key changes in Turkey’s foreign policy, tussling for influence with regional powers in the Middle East.
Internally, the country has experienced another backslide in democracy, corruption and press freedom.
The country has also seen huge inflation, not helped by Erdogan’s unique monetary policy – which saw property prices in Istanbul rise 241% in the 12 months to October last year.
Support even appears to be falling in the President’s hometown of Rize as the cost of living crisis takes it toll.
The government has increased its number of polling stations across Europe in a bid to find support among diaspora.
Vladimir Putin relayed his confidence in Erdogan at a virtual meeting to celebrate the opening of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant last week.
He said that the construction of the Akkuyu plant was a ‘convincing example of how much you, Mr President Erdogan, are doing for your country, for the growth of its economy, for all Turkish citizens’.
Recent polling shows opposition parties have made significant gains on Erdogan’s AKP since 2018.
PolitPro warns the government may not stay in office based on currently trends, expected to achieve 45.7% of the vote at the time of writing.
