Erdogan says Turkish forces killed IS chief in Syria

Turkish forces have killed the leader of the Islamic State (IS) group during an operation in Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late on Sunday.

Erdogan announced that the IS leader, code-named Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi, was killed in a strike conducted on Saturday. The Turkish intelligence agency, MIT, had been following him “for a long time” and clashed with IS militants on a farm in the village of Miska in Aleppo province late Friday night.

As the fighting intensified, Al-Qurayshi, who was hiding in a building on the farm, blew himself up. Türkiyehas conducted numerous operations against IS and Kurdish groups along the Syrian border.