The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, was killed during a US raid on his home in Atmeh, northwest Syria, on Thursday. The house was reportedly located just a few hundred meters from a Turkish-controlled checkpoint and in a village that sits just a kilometer away from the Turkish border, reports the Independent.
U.S. troops, backed by an F-16 fighter jet, were dropped by helicopter at around 1:20 a.m. local time to a house near the Atmeh village in Syria’s Idlib province, Anadolu said citing civil defense teams. Atmeh is adjacent to the Turkish border, adds Ahval News.
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There is no doubt the optics did not look good for Turkey, because US’ “close NATO ally” was not consulted or asked to aid in the riad. According to Turkish press reports, the strike team lifted off from Erbil Airport in Iraq’s Kurdish Federated Region.
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The attack on al-Qurashi came just over two years after his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was found and killed in a US-led operation in another village, 15 kilometers south of Atmeh.
It was again a border region in Idlib province, which for years had been under the tight control of either Turkish-backed Syrian forces or Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a jihadist faction formerly known as the Nusra Front. It’s headed by Abu Mohammad al-Julani, ex-leader of the Al Qaeda branch in Syria.
Turkey has nearly a dozen military observation posts in the opposition-held region and is regarded as a kind of guarantor for that corner of Syria. If you roughly carve up the war-torn country into spheres of international influence, Idlib has long been filed under “Turkey’s patch”.
For years, there has been a flow of reports accusing Ankara of aiding and abetting ISIS. Turkish journalists exposing a convoy arms deliveries to ISIS, originally intended for anti-Assad Turkmen guerrillas have been convicted of airing state secrets.
Russian sources have alleged military and police members have cooperated with local militia, ISIS and pro-Kurdish SDF to facilitate oil smuggling to Turkey.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement that the operation was successful, declining to provide details of the target of the raid, Anadolu said. He thanked SDF for its cooperation , but stressed that SDF forces were not involved in the strike. There were no U.S. casualties and more information would be shared when it becomes available, he said.
(SDF), the US’s closest allies in Syria and Turkey’s bitter foes, were quick to capitalize on this. Farhad Shami, a SDF spokesperson, took to Twitter to make accusations (in English) that Turkey “protected” the late Isis leader.
“Is there any doubt that Turkey [has] turned areas [of] North Syria [into a] safe zone for Daesh leaders?” he said late on Thursday.
Turkish officials have declined to comment on the raid. But Ankara’s foreign ministry did release a fairly defensive statement afterwards, suggesting feathers had been ruffled.
“Turkey’s firm attitude in the fight against the [Isis] terrorist organization and its contributions to the efforts of the international community in this area are well known,” the ministry said.
“As a member of the global coalition, Turkey plays an active role in the fight against [Isis] and the perverse mindset that it represents”.
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