THE leader of Islamic terror group ISIS has been killed by Turkish forces in Syria, Turkey’s President said tonight.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the group’s chief Abu Hussein al-Qurashi had been “neutralised” as part of a Turkish intelligence operation on Saturday.
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Agents are believed to have killed the terror chief in Jindires, a town in northern Syria, about four miles from the Turkish border.
Erdogan told the TRT Turk TV station this evening: “This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organization in Syria.
“MIT (the National Intelligence Organization) has been tracking the so-called leader of Daesh, Abu Hussein al-Qurashi, for a long time.”
The operation is said to have involved targeting an abandoned farm that was being used as an Islamic school.
The mission took place around 1am on Saturday and allegedly involved Turkish forces storming the house and clashing with ISIS fighters.
BNO News reported that at they were allegedly able to surround Al-Qurashi who then blew himself up with explosives strapped to his body.
Al-Qurashi became the fourth leader of ISIS in November, when the group announced the death of his predecessor, Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi – who was killed fighting in Syria.
The founder of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed by American forces in October, 2019.
After years of hiding, US troops managed to track down Baghdadi to his lair in north western Syria.
The huge operation used a eight helicopters, carrying 70 elite Delta Force troops, that swooped in on the a booby-trapped compound and cornered the tyrant.
Baghdadi fled down a secret tunnel with his own kids and as he was being hunted by an attack dog, the sick fanatic ignited his suicide vest killing himself and his children.
ISIS occupied roughly one-third of Syria and Iraq at its peak in 2014, which sparked a major humanitarian crisis and a wave of terror attacks around the world.
It now controls only small pockets of land in rural parts of Syria’s east after being driven out of much of its former territory, but still launches sporadic attacks in the war-weary nation.
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