ISTANBUL – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sunday that Turkish intelligence forces had assassinated Islamic State leader Abu Hussein al-Qurashi in Syria.
“This individual was neutralized yesterday as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organization in Syria,” Erdoğan said in an interview with Turkish broadcaster TRT.
Erdoğan said that the intelligence organization had been persecuting Qurashi for a long time.
Syrian security and local sources said the raid took place in the northern Syrian town of Jandaris, which is controlled by Turkish-backed rebel groups and was one of the hardest hit by the February 6 earthquake that struck both to Turkey as to Syria.
The Syrian National Army, an opposition faction with a security presence in the area, had no immediate comment.
A resident said the clashes began on the edge of Jandaris overnight from Saturday to Sunday and lasted for about an hour before residents heard a large explosion.
The area was later surrounded by security forces to prevent anyone from approaching the area.
IS selected al-Qurashi as its leader in November after the previous IS leader was killed in an operation in southern Syria.
Islamic State took over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, and its boss at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared an Islamic caliphate on a territory that was home to millions.
But ISIS lost control of the territory after campaigns by US-backed forces in Syria and Iraq, as well as Iranian-backed Syrian forces, Russia and various militias.
The thousands of remaining militants have been hiding in recent years mostly in remote areas in the interior of both countries, though they are still capable of carrying out large hit-and-run attacks.
The US-led coalition along with a Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces are still conducting raids against Islamic State officials in Syria.
In some cases, high-ranking IS figures have been attacked while hiding in areas where Turkey has great influence.