Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the "presumed leader" of the Islamic State group had been "neutralized" in Syria during an operation carried out by Turkish intelligence.

"The supposed leader of ISIS, whose nom de guerre is Abu al-Hussein al-Qurashi, was neutralized during an operation carried out yesterday (Saturday) by the National Intelligence Service in Syria," Erdogan said during a televised interview.

On November 30, the Islamic State announced the killing of its former leader, Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, and the appointment of Abu al-Hussein al-Qurashi as his successor.

An AFP correspondent in northern Syria reported that members of Turkish intelligence and the Turkish-backed local military police sealed off an area in Jenderes, in the Afrin region, in northwestern Syria, on Saturday.

Residents also told AFP that an operation targeted an abandoned farm in the area that was used as an Islamic school.

Turkey has been deploying forces in northern Syria since 2020, controlling entire regions with the support of Syrian factions.

In mid-April, US forces launched a helicopter raid as part of an operation in northern Syria targeting an official they accused of planning attacks in Europe and the Middle East.

Later, the US Central Command announced that the operation resulted in the killing of a prominent ISIS leader, Abd al-Hadi Mahmoud al-Haj Ali.

An attack on April 16th by suspected Islamic State fighters in Syria killed at least 41 people, 24 of them civilians.

In the first week of April, US forces announced that they had killed a leader of the Islamic State, accusing him of being responsible for planning attacks in Europe, and identified him as Khaled Eid Ahmed al-Jubouri.

And the Islamic State, when it was at the height of its power and controlled large swaths of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks carried out in Europe.

Although its fighters were expelled from most of the territory it controlled, the organization continues to launch attacks in Syria.