ISIL leader committed suicide before capture by Turkish forces
ANKARA
Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, the so-called leader of the ISIL terror group, detonated his suicide vest as he realized that he was about to be captured by Turkish intelligence forces, according to security sources.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on late April 30 announced that the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) “neutralized” al-Qurashi in Syria.
With the revealing details of MİT’s operation, it was learnt that the organization received intelligence that al-Qurashi passed to the safe zone in Syria.
Thereupon, MİT officers started an intelligence study against the so-called leader of ISIL, who was on the target list of MİT for a while.
In the studies carried out with the support of the local military police, MİT determined that al-Qurashi was in the Jindires region in the northwest region of Afrin.
According to the security sources, al-Qurashi lived in a farmhouse in the Mishki village, two kilometers from Jindires, and led the organization from there.
The farmhouse in the Mishki village, located opposite the Hamam village in the Turkish province of Hatay, began to be monitored from the air and land.
Those who entered the village and people who entered the farmhouse were followed.
It was soon determined that al-Qurashi used couriers to avoid being followed and conveyed his instructions to the terrorist organization via these couriers.
As MİT received a tip-off al-Qurashi would relocate soon, a special team of Turkish intelligence raided the house where the terrorist was hiding and carried out a secret operation on April 28.
The intelligence team called on al-Qurashi to surrender when they infiltrated the farmhouse.
The operation team, who did not receive a response from the terrorist after the call, firstly busted the garden wall of the farmhouse, then the backyard gate and side wall and entered the house.
When al-Qurashi realized that he was about to be captured, he detonated his suicide vest.
In the operation that lasted about four hours, the operation team or civilians did not suffer any harm.
Abu Hussein al-Qurashi was named leader of the militant group after its previous chief was killed in October, with an ISIL spokesman calling him “one of the veteran warriors and one of the loyal sons of ISIL.”
He took over leadership of ISIL at a time when the extremist group has lost control of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria. However, he had been trying to rise again, with sleeper cells carrying out deadly attacks in both countries.
In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare ISIL a terrorist group.
The country has since been attacked by ISIL terrorists multiple times, with at least 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks and four armed attacks, killing 315 people and injuring hundreds more.