Erdogan confirms intelligence agency killed ISIS leader

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed Sunday that the country’s intelligence agency killed an ISIS leader.

“The National Intelligence Organization (MIT) had been following the so-called leader of Daesh, code-named Abu Hussein al Qurayshi, for a long time,” Erdogan said during an interview Sunday on Turkish broadcaster TRT Turk as translated by the country’s state-run news agency Anadolu Agency. “This is the first time I am telling this here. This person was neutralized in an operation carried out by the MIT yesterday.”

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Daesh is the Arab acronym name for ISIS and has been made a standard by former Secretary of State John Kerry as early as 2014. Turkey declared Daesh a terrorist organization in 2013.

This assassination comes after the Taliban’s killing of the ISIS-Khorasan leader earlier this month. The man was responsible for the Aug. 26, 2021, bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians. Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed the U.S. was not involved in that assassination attempt.

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Turkey has seen over 300 deaths at the hands of Daesh across 10 suicide bombings, seven bomb attacks, and four armed assaults, according to the state-run media outlet.