ISTANBUL (AFP) – Turkey
released new details Monday about its successful operation against the Daesh’s global chief, saying he died by setting off a suicide vest to avoid being detained.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday the death of the “suspected leader of Daesh, codename Abu Hussein al-Qurashi”.
Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency gave his full name as Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, saying he joined Daesh in 2013 and quickly rose through the terrorist group’s ranks.
Turkish media also released images of a fenced-off building in the middle of a field where it said Qurashi was hiding in Syria’s Afrin province.
A section of the two-story house was sheared off, apparently from blasts.
Daesh announced the death of its previous leader, Abu Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, on November 30.
Anadolu said Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency conducted a four-hour operation during which it located and surrounded al-Hussein al-Husseini on Saturday.
MIT agents blasted apart a stone wall that surrounded the house, before entering it through a rear entrance and side windows.
Al-Hussein al-Husseini set off his suicide vest when he realized he was about to be captured, Anadolu said, adding that no Turkish operatives were killed or injured.
An AFP correspondent in northern Syria said the operation had targeted an abandoned farm that was being used as a school.
Turkey has deployed troops in northern Syria since 2020, and controls entire zones with the help of proxies in Syria.
The Daesh group took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, and its head at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a ‘caliphate’ across an area that was home to millions of people.
But the group lost its grip on the territory after campaigns by Syrian and Iraqi forces, aided by Iran and Russia.