Damascus - (AFP) - A leader of the Islamic State blew himself up with an explosive belt, after being surrounded by the Syrian government forces in the south of the country, according to what the official media reported, quoting a security source, on Wednesday, in a rare operation of its kind.

The Syrian source announced, according to what was reported by the official news agency "SANA", that the "competent security authorities carried out a qualitative security operation" that led to "the killing of the terrorist Abu Salem al-Iraqi" in the western countryside of Daraa "after surrounding him and wounding him with several bullets before detonating himself with an explosive belt." .

Al-Iraqi, according to the security source, was the military leader of the extremist organization in southern Syria .

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the killing of the Iraqi on Tuesday, after he was surrounded by government forces and local gunmen. He said that he had been hiding in the region since 2018, and had participated in the assassinations and chaos in southern Syria from time to time.

Daraa governorate is the only area from which not all fighters of the opposition factions left after the government forces took control of it in 2018, according to a settlement agreement sponsored by Moscow, which kept the presence of opposition fighters who kept light weapons, while the regime forces did not spread throughout the governorate.

The presence of the organization was limited to a small pocket, through an extremist faction that pledged allegiance to it, before it was defeated from the region.

Since 2018, security chaos and unarmed violence have dominated the scene in Daraa governorate, which was the cradle of popular protests in 2011. Explosions and shootings have repeatedly occurred against government forces, or assassinations of loyalists or former opponents, and even civilians who worked for government institutions. The Islamic State adopted the implementation of several of them.

Since the announcement of the elimination of the extremist organization's "caliphate" in 2019, its fighters have mainly retreated to the desert, which extends between the governorates of Homs (central) and Deir ez-Zor (east), where government forces, with Russian air support, are engaged in clashes from time to time with the cells of the organization, causing deaths. From both sides.

A number of the organization's leaders and fighters are also hiding in different villages and regions.

The international coalition, led by Washington, is pursuing the leaders of the organization and carrying out operations to arrest them, whether in Deir ez-Zor or in other areas, most notably Idlib (northeast), where Washington announced in February the death of the former leader of the organization, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurashi, after he blew himself up during an operation launched by US special forces. .

Since 2011, Syria has been witnessing a bloody conflict that has killed about half a million people, caused massive destruction to infrastructure and productive sectors, and led to the displacement of millions of people inside and outside the country.