The leader of the Islamic State, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in a Syrian hideout close to the Turkish border, just like his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, casting doubt over Ankara’s assertions of its decisive struggle against the radical group. 

Like his predecessor, al-Qurayshi was hiding in a house near the northern Syrian town of Atmeh, a stone’s throw from the border across the Turkish province of Hatay and only a few hundred meters from Turkey’s Bukulmez military outpost, which overlooks the region. Washington’s underscoring of the Syrian Democratic Force’s role in the raid came atop, dealing another blow to Ankara. 

Al-Qurayshi, whose real name was Abdullah Amir Mohammed Saeed al-Mawla and who went by several other aliases, was killed near northwestern Syrian village Barisha some 25 kilometers (15 miles) away from the Turkish border. Similarly, his predecessor Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had also been killed in Barisha in 2019.

The three-story house where al-Qurayshi was hiding is located one kilometer from a checkpoint of Failaq al-Sham, a Turkish-backed Syrian opposition group, and some 500 meters from a Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) checkpoint. HTS is the dominant group that controls Idlib and surrounding regions including Atmeh.