The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights announced Monday that the leader of the Islamic State jihadist group, Abu al-Husein al-Qurashi, was assassinated at a base of the pro-Turkish Yaish al-Sharqi militia, hours after Ankara claimed responsibility for the attack. . operation
According to a statement from the UK-based non-governmental organization (NGO), which has a wide network of partners on the ground, al-Qurashi died last Saturday when a missile hit a barracks in the canton of Afrin. in that of Jindires, in northern Syria that was taken over by Turkish forces and their allied militias in 2018.
The base where the “caliph” was located belonged to Yaish al-Sharqiyah, supported by Ankara, says the observatory, which had already reported the operation the day it took place, without confirming the identity of the victim beaten during the operation.
“Sources from the observatory claimed that Turkish fighter jets were seen flying over the area at the time of the attack, amid military preparations by the Turkish forces and their allied factions, with the closure of the roads leading to the attacked position,” says the statement.
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had already announced on Sunday night, in an interview with TRT public television, that the country’s secret services assassinated the leader of the Islamic State in Syria, without giving details about the operation and where it was located. carried out. .
The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led armed alliance, an enemy of Ankara and an ally of the international coalition fighting Islamic State, also said today that al-Qurashi “was deployed in a military position belonging to the Turkish-backed Ahrar “. Mercenary group of the Sharquía”.
Yaish al-Sharqiyah was part of Ahrar al-Sharqiyah, a formation currently favorable to the Left Liberation Organization, an Islamist alliance that dominates most of the province of Idlib (northwest) and several areas of neighboring Aleppo, where find Afrin.
Three other “caliphs” have been killed in Syria since 2019, two of them in Idlib in US operations and one at the hands of Syrian opposition groups in the southern Deraa region.
Source: TSF
