Turkey on Monday released new details about its operation to eliminate the leader of the Islamic State organization in Syria, saying he died by setting off a suicide vest to avoid being detained, AFP reported.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday during a TV interview that Turkey had eliminated Abu al-Qurayshi.
Turkey’s Anadolu state news agency on Monday gave his full name as Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al- Qurayshi, saying he joined ISIS in 2013 and quickly rose through the jihadist group’s ranks.
Turkish media also released images of a fenced-off building in the middle of a field where it said Qurayshi was hiding in Syria’s Afrin province.
A section of the two-story house was sheared off, apparently from blasts.
Anadolu also said Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency conducted a four-hour operation during which it located and surrounded the ISIS leader on Saturday.
MIT agents blasted apart a stone wall that surrounded the house, before entering it through a rear entrance and side windows, it said.
The ISIS leader 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.
Turkey, which has been attacked by ISIS several times, regularly detains suspected members of the group, many who allegedly planned attacks in the country.
In June of 2018, Erdogan revealed that his country captured the wife of former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an operation.

Turkey has also captured Rasmiya Awad, the sister of Baghdadi, as well as her husband and daughter-in-law.
Last September, Turkey arrested a senior executive of ISIS known as Abu Zeyd.
In February, the Turkish intelligence agency busted a network of 15 ISIS operatives, who allegedly planned to carry out terrorist attacks against the embassies of Sweden and the Netherlands in Istanbul.