Agents with Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency killed the leader of the Islamic State group in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.
“The suspected leader of Daesh, code name Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, has been neutralized in an operation carried out [Saturday] by the MIT in Syria,” Mr. Erdogan announced on TV, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State terror group.
He said agents with Turkey’s spy agency had been pursuing the ISIS leader “for a long time.” The raid took place in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris, controlled by Turkish-backed rebel groups. The target was in an abandoned farm used as an Islamic school, according to the French AFP news agency.
Al-Qurashi had been leading ISIS since the death on Nov. 30 of the terror group’s previous leader, Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
The Turkish operation occurred two weeks after U.S. Central Command forces killed Abd-al-Hadi Mahmud al-Haji Ali, a senior ISIS leader in Syria responsible for planning terror attacks in the Middle East and Europe.
That operation, on April 17, was launched after intelligence revealed an ISIS plot to kidnap officials abroad as leverage for ISIS initiatives, U.S. Central Command officials said.
“We know ISIS retains the desire to strike beyond the Middle East,” Col. Joe Buccino, a U.S. Central Command spokesman said following the U.S.-led raid that dealt “a significant blow to ISIS operations in the region.”
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.