ISIS chief blew himself up before capture: Turkey

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) detonated a suicide vest before being captured by a squad of Turkish intelligence agents during a secret Saturday raid in northwest Syria, state media reported. 

Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi was reportedly killed when Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) agents “raided the house where the terrorist was hiding and carried out a secret operation on Saturday,” state-owned Anadolu Agency said, citing a security source. 

“When al-Qurayshi realized that he was about to be captured, he detonated his suicide vest,” Anadolu stated, adding that intelligence forces had called on him to surrender but received no response. 

The operation was carried out on a farmhouse near the northwestern town of Jindires near Afrin and lasted around four hours, according to the source. 

Earlier on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkish forces eliminated the suspected ISIS leader during an operation the day before but did not disclose further details. 

“This is the first time I am telling this here, this person was neutralized in an operation carried out by MIT yesterday,” Erdogan said. 

Former ISIS chief Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi blew himself up during an overnight US special operations raid in February 2022 in Idlib, northwest Syria – an area under control of Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels. 

“As our troops approached to capture the terrorist, in a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up,” US President Joe Biden said at the time. 

Four years ago, longtime ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died in a similar US forces raid in another area of Idlib. Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest after being cornered in a tunnel with three of his children.

Former US president Donald Trump said following the operation that “Baghdadi did not die like a hero, but a dog whimpering and screaming … he died like a coward.”  

ISIS rose to power and swept through vast swathes of Syrian and Iraqi land in 2014 but was declared devoid of territorial control in 2017 and 2017 respectively. The terror group’s remnants continue to pose serious security risks in parts of northern Iraq that are disputed between Erbil and Baghdad. In Syria, the militants continue to launch deadly attacks from the Syrian desert, which extends from Damascus to the Iraqi border.  

An estimated 6,000 to 10,000 ISIS fighters are spread across Syria and Iraq, according to the Pentagon’s latest quarterly report covering anti-ISIS operations from October through December 2022.