Turkey had announced that it had killed the ISIL leader in April.
The ISIL (ISIS) group has confirmed the death of its leader, Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, and named Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi as his replacement.
The group said on Thursday that its leader had been killed in “direct clashes” in rebel-held northwestern Syria with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group.
The announcement was made by an ISIL spokesman in a recorded message on its channels on the Telegram messaging app, without specifying when he was killed.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in April that Turkish intelligence forces had killed the leader in Syria.
US defence official said Washington is considering options amid growing aggression by Russian planes in skies over Syria.
The United States is deploying additional fighter jets around the strategic Strait of Hormuz to protect ships from Iranian seizures, a senior US defence official said, according to a news report.
Speaking to Pentagon reporters on Friday, the official said the US will send F-16 fighter jets to the Gulf region this weekend to augment the A-10 attack aircraft that have been patrolling there for more than a week.
Washington’s increase in military assets in the region comes after Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strait last week, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reported.
The defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details of US military operations in the region, said the F-16s will give air cover to the ships moving through the waterway and increase the US military’s visibility in the area, as a deterrent to Iran, AP reported.
The US Navy said that in two recent instances, Iranian naval vessels backed off when the USS McFaul, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived on the scene.
Russian military activity in Syria, which has increased in frequency and aggression towards US forces since March, stems from growing cooperation and coordination between Moscow, Tehran and the Syrian government to try to pressure the US to leave Syria, the official said.
The most recent incident was on Friday morning when a Russian aircraft flew repeatedly over the al-Tanf garrison in eastern Syria, where US forces are training Syrian allies and monitoring ISIL activity.
The official said the Russian An-30 aircraft was collecting intelligence on the base. The US did not have fighter aircraft in the area and took no direct action against the Russian flight, the official said.
There are about 900 US forces in the country, and others move in and out to conduct missions targeting ISIL.
In this image from a video released by the US Air Force, a Russian SU-35 flies near a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone on July 5, 2023, over Syria. The US says Russian fighter jets have flown dangerously close to several of their drone aircraft over Syria, setting off flares and forcing the MQ-9 Reapers to take evasive action [File: US Air Force via AP]
Turkish President discloses intelligence operation took place in Jinderes in northwestern Syria on Saturday.
Turkish intelligence forces have killed the suspected leader of the ISIL (ISIS) group, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.
Erdogan said Turkish intelligence had been monitoring the alleged leader of the hardline group for a long time before launching their operation.
“This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organisation in Syria yesterday,” Erdogan said in an interview with TRT Turk broadcaster on Sunday.
“We will continue our struggle with terrorist organisations without any discrimination,” the president added.
Syrian local and security sources said the raid took place near the northern Syrian town of Jinderes, which is controlled by Turkey-backed rebel groups and was among the worst-affected areas in the February 6 earthquake that hit both Turkey and Syria.
There was no announcement from ISIL (ISIS). The Syrian National Army, an opposition faction with a security presence in the area, did not immediately issue any comment.
A correspondent from the AFP news agency in northern Syria said Turkish intelligence agents and local military police, backed by Turkey, had sealed off a zone in Jindires on Saturday.
The compound allegedly housing #ISIS’s global leader was located outside the town of #Jinderes, surrounded by fields of olive trees.
The area was hit very hard by the earthquake, resulting in many visits by foreign media & some aid groups.
Residents told AFP that an operation had targeted an abandoned farm that was being used as an Islamic school.
One resident told the Reuters news agency that clashes started on the edge of the town overnight from Saturday into Sunday, lasting for about an hour before residents heard a large explosion.
The area was later encircled by security forces to prevent anyone from approaching.
The ISIL (ISIS) group took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, and its head at the time, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared an Islamic caliphate across an area that was home to millions of people.
But the group lost its grip on the territory after campaigns by US-backed forces in Syria and Iraq, as well as Syrian forces backed by Iran, Russia and various paramilitaries.
Its remaining fighters are now mostly hiding in remote areas of Syria and Iraq, and still launch attacks from time to time.
Rebels linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL have been active in parts of Mali and the Sahel for more than a decade now.
The chief of staff for Mali’s interim president, Oumar Traore, and three others have been killed in an ambush, the government said on Thursday.
The ambush took place in the rural area of Nara in Mali’s southwestern Koulikoro region, the statement said, without providing further detail on when the attack occurred or who was responsible for it.
A driver who was travelling with the delegation is still missing, it added.
Mali is one of several West African countries battling armed groups during the past decade.
Rebels linked to al-Qaeda and the ISIL (ISIS) armed group have seized swaths of territory across the region, killed thousands and displaced millions. In January, fourteen Malian soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in two separate attacks in central Mali after their vehicles struck explosive devices.
Frustrations against the authorities’ failure to quell the violence have spurred two military takeovers in Mali since 2020.
In 2022, French troops completed a withdrawal from Mali as relations soured between both countries due to two coups and the perceived ineffectiveness of the foreign military in tackling rebel activity.
There have also been growing tensions between the UN mission and Mali’s military government following the alleged arrival of Wagner Group operatives from Russia to bolster government forces.
The attack on al-Tanf, where US troops are based, injures two allied Syrian opposition fighters, the coalition says.
A drone attack hit a US-led coalition base in southern Syria, the US military’s Central Command has said.
“Three one-way attack drones attacked the al-Tanf Garrison in Syria,” a CENTCOM statement said on Friday.
Two of the drones were shot down by the coalition, but the third hit the compound, wounding two allied Syrian opposition fighters who received treatment, the statement added.
“Attacks of this kind are unacceptable,” CENTCOM spokesperson Joe Buccino said, without specifying who carried it out.
“They place our troops and our partners at risk and jeopardise the fight against ISIL.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Iran-backed forces are deployed in close proximity to al-Tanf, a desert garrison on the strategically important Baghdad-Damascus highway, near the border with Iraq and Jordan.
Iran is a key ally of the Syrian government and the coalition has disrupted similar attacks on al-Tanf in the past.
Sleeper cells of the armed ISIL (ISIS) group are also active in the area.
The coalition set up the base in 2016 to train Syrian fighters for the war against ISIL.
It retained the facility even after the fighters’ last Syrian outpost was overrun by Kurdish-led forces in March 2019.
Roughly 900 US troops remain at al-Tanf and other bases in the Kurdish-controlled northeast as part of the coalition’s continuing campaign against ISIL remnants.
The US has previously carried out attacks targeting what it says were infrastructure facilities used by groups affiliated with Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The raids, it said, were in response to attacks allegedly launched by Iranian-backed fighters targeting al-Tanf.
The Syrian government has constantly expressed its opposition to the US role in Syria, and demanded that US forces withdraw.
A court in France has handed down prison terms to eight people charged for the terror attack in Nice in 2016, where a man rammed his truck into a crowd celebrating the July 14 national holiday.
Two men were given the most severe sentence of 18 years behind bars on Tuesday for helping Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian resident, prepare the attack that killed 86 people and injured more than 450 in a four-minute rampage on a seaside embankment in the southern city before being shot dead by police.
Judges determined that Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud must have known about the attacker’s turn to radicalism and his potential to carry out a terror attack, based on records of phone calls and text messages among the three in the days before the attack.
Ghraieb, a 47-year-old from the same Tunisian town as Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, and Chafroud, a 43-year-old Tunisian, were also accused of helping to rent the delivery truck.
Lawyers arrive for the start of the trial of eight individuals for their role in the July 14, 2016, attacks on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France [File: Christian Hartmann/Reuters]
They denied the charges. Ghraieb’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, said his client would appeal.
Ramzi Arefa, 28 – who has admitted to providing Lahouaiej-Bouhlel with the gun he fired at police without hitting anyone – was handed a 12-year term, though he was not accused of criminal association with a terrorist or of being aware of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s potential for launching an attack.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group later claimed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as one of its followers. Investigators have not found any concrete links between the attacker and the armed group, who at the time controlled swaths of Iraq and Syria.
The five other suspects, a Tunisian and four Albanians, were sentenced to prison terms of two to eight years on charges of weapons trafficking or criminal conspiracy, but without any terrorism-related charges.
Brahim Tritrou was the only suspect tried in absentia after fleeing judicial supervision to Tunisia, where he is now believed to be under arrest.
‘A small victory’
The verdict followed more than three months of sometimes heart-wrenching testimony from survivors of the attack, who during the trial described the horror and carnage they witnessed that summer night and the effect it had on their lives.
Some 30,000 people had gathered on the Nice seafront to watch a fireworks display celebrating France’s annual Bastille Day holiday when Lahouaiej-Bouhlel began his attack.
According to French and Tunisian news reports, his body was repatriated to Tunisia in 2017 and buried in his hometown of M’saken, south of Tunis. This has never been confirmed by the Tunisian authorities.
France has been buffeted by a wave of assaults since the killings at the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January 2015, often by “lone wolf” attackers acting in the name of ISIL or other groups.
In October, a Paris appeals court upheld the life sentence of Ali Riza Polat, accused of helping to find the weapons for the Charlie Hebdo attackers.
The Nice trial took place at the historic Palais de Justice in Paris, in the same purpose-built courtroom that held the hearings for the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.
A special venue was also set up in Nice to allow victims to follow proceedings via a live broadcast.
Survivors reacted positively to the verdict.
“I am satisfied to see that the two main defendants have been sentenced to 18 years in prison, even if it is nothing compared to what we have experienced,” said survivor Laurence Bray. “This verdict is a relief. Now, there will be a big void.”
“It won’t bring my family back, my mom, my son, but it’s a small victory that feels good,” Caroline Villani, another survivor, said.
For many others, the sentences sought by prosecutors failed to match the scope of the suffering.
