ISIS leader ‘killed in airstrike’ as Iraq hideout bombed
Iraqi special forces suspect they have killed an Islamic State leader in an aistrike on a cave hideout.
Specialists are tonight carrying out tests on DNA samples from the remains of the suspected IS leader. The hideaway was bombed in the Hamrin Mountains in north east Iraq.
It is thought Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi, who took over as leader in November, may have been among five ISIS people hit in the operation. Elite commandos from the Iraqi “Golden Division” retrieved the dead bodies after warplanes hit the complex in an operation conducted recently.
Gen Abdul Wahab el-Saadi told the Daily Mirror: “Among these five men we know we killed a man who was heading the Islamic State’s media campaign.
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“This man is never far away from the ISIS leadership so we believe and we hope that the Islamic State leadership has been killed.
“We cannot be sure yet but I believe DNA tests are currently being carried out. This may take some time.
“What we do know is that these five men were high up in Islamic State so we have had a positive result with that and many other operations.”
Al-Qurayshi, a veteran jihadist, took over after his predecessor Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al-Qurayshi was killed in Syria in October. The latest leader is a mystery man and it is believed there is little intelligence agencies know about his background.
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When he took over he was referred to by ISIS as an “old fighter” and commands a huge respect among the group. British RAF planes recently carried out airstrikes on the Hamrin Mountains against Islamic State, flying in from RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus.
But it is not known if UK Typhoon jets conducted this key mission on ISIS or whether it was conducted by an Iraqi fighter jet. The ISIS leadership is becoming increasingly careful about security, rarely staying in one place for more than one night and spending most of their time in caves and desert hideouts.
And western spy planes are launching missions to pick up conversations over the internet and telephones in a bid to keep ISIS on the run. It is known that whenever the terrorist network is allowed to stay in one place it may use its still large war chest to try to radicalise or instruct western-based jihadists to launch attacks.
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