Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced during an interview with TRT Turk on Sunday that Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurshi was killed over the weekend in Aleppo, Syria, during an operation carried out by MIT (Turkish National Intelligence Organization). This would mark the third ISIS emir to be killed in just over a year.
Turkey announced the killing of overall ISIS leader (Abu Hassein Qurayshi) in Syria. He blew up himself after the building he lived in was surrounded during a MIT raid. It happened 3 days ago in outskirts of Jindires (N. Aeppo). Prvious IS leader was slain in Daraa 6 months ago pic.twitter.com/wMxXteXulw
— QalaatM (@QalaatM) May 1, 2023
According to local sources, a raid was carried out on a house near the city of Jinderes, which sits in the Afrin district of the Aleppo countryside. Since 2018, the area has been under the control of the Turkish military and its allied Syrian rebel forces. While exact details remain unclear, clashes took place and ended with al-Qurshi allegedly killing himself by detonating a suicide vest.
Photos of the house can be geolocated to (36.436468, 36.697490).
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini Al-Qurshi succeed ISIS Emir Abu al-Hassan al-Qurashi, who was killed in October, 2022, during a Syrian-backed “Eight Brigade” raid against an ISIS compound in Jassim, Dar’a, where several high ranking ISIS leaders were either killed or captured. At the time of the raid, one of the killed militants was named as Abd al-Rahman al-Iraqi, who was later identified as al-Qurashi.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the first ISIS Emir, was killed during a United States special forces operation in Idlib, Syria, back in October 2019. He was succeeded by Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, who was killed in February 2022 during another American special forces operation in Idlib. In both cases, the ISIS leaders killed themselves in a suicide bomb detonation to avoid capture. In March 2022, ISIS declared Abu al-Hassan al-Qurashi as the next leader of the terror group.
So far, ISIS has not made any announcements confirming the leader’s death. Likewise, the development has yet to confirmed by other nations.
