AL-Monitor



[The Islamic State leader’s hideout a stone’s throw away from Turkey's
border and Syrian Democratic Forces involvement in the raid have
raised fresh questions over Ankara’s fight against the Islamic State.]

By Fehim Tastekin
Feb. 10, 2022

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 question marks 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.

Atmeh, which is home to a large refugee camp for displaced Syrians,
has become a place where jihadis from groups such as al-Qaeda and IS
can easily hide. Although the region remains out of the Turkish-backed
groups' control, Atme and nearby villages can be easily monitored from
the military watchtower at Bukulmez outpost.

Given the intelligence leaks that suggest al-Qurayshi was also relying
on a web of couriers to lead the group like his predecessor, Turkey’s
failure to identify the suspicious mobility in the region is raising
further question marks.

The US strike came after the IS raid on a prison in Hasakah.
Increasing Turkish strikes on SDF checkpoints at the time of the raid
likely smoothed the path for the attackers. Turkey has been keeping
Tell Tamr, Ain Issa, Kobani east of Euphrates and Manbij and Tel Rifat
west of Euphrates under constant fire through howitzers and combat
drones. This, in turn, provides ammunition to those who claim that
Turkey is opening a path for the IS.

In addition to the location of the al-Qurayshi's hideout, the SDF’s
involvement in the latest raid puts Ankara into an even more untenable
position. In a briefing after the strike, US President Joe Biden said
​​the raid was “aided by the essential partnership of the Syrian
Democratic Forces.”

Riding the momentum, the SDF didn’t miss the opportunity to taunt
Turkey. “Is there any doubt that Turkey [has] turned areas [of
northern] Syria into a safe haven for Daesh leaders?” Farhad Shami, a
SDF press person, wrote on Twitter, using the Arabic acronym of the
Islamic State. Shami also reminded readers that Baghdadi had been
killed in the same area. Mazlum Kobane, the commander in chief of SDF,
said al-Qurayshi was killed thanks to the “strong partnership” between
the US and SDF.

In short, instead of its NATO ally Turkey, the US joined forces with
the SDF to hunt down a prominent IS target near the Turkish border.
The location of al-Qurayshi’s hideout shows once again that IS leaders
hide in places from where they can easily make use of the Turkish
borders. Al-Qurayshi’s ethnic origins remain unknown, but some say he
was an ethnic Turkmen who had little difficulty establishing ties
within Turkey.

It's no secret that the IS considered Turkey a place where its
militants could take shelter in relative ease during its withdrawal
from Iraq and Syria. According to Kasim Guler, the alleged IS leader
for Turkey, whose confessions to the Turkish authorities were leaked
to the media last week, back then Baghdadi had made a decision to use
Turkey as a major base.

Guler, who was caught in June 2021 near the Syrian border, told the
authorities that under that plan, dubbed “the mountain project,” the
militant group was going to base in the outskirts of four different
Turkish provinces including Hatay along the border, according to an
exclusive report by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. The bases would
train new militants joining the Islamic State from Europe. Guler said
that they had smuggled AK-47s, RPG launchers, and other weapons​​ from
the Syrian town of al-Bab to Turkey and buried them in six Turkish
cities, including Istanbul and Izmir, according to the DW report.

IS recruiter Mustafa Dokumaci’s attempts to realize the project were
foiled after the arrest of the ranking IS militants responsible for
the plan. The group relied on senior IS figure Mahmut Ozden for
communications between the Turkey-based IS cells, the DW reported,
citing Guler’s testimony. Guler said the group had cells in more than
a dozen Turkish cities including Istanbul and Ankara. Guler also
recounted some plots to assassinate prominent politicians including
Turkey’s main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and Istanbul
Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

The major reason why IS militants prefer to take shelter in Turkey is
that the Turkish government has considered Islamic State a useful tool
in its fight against the Syrian Kurdish groups. Accordingly, Ankara’s
policies against the radical group have become riddled with
inconsistencies.

IS militants can easily wire funds using exchange offices and jewelry
shops in Turkey. The Turkish judiciary’s weakness in dealing with
Islamic State suspects is another reason. Islamic State suspects
caught in Turkey cannot be tried on crimes they committed abroad. Some
IS suspects have been released on probation or on grounds of lack of
evidence.

They appear to travel to and from Syria and Iraq easily, even
smuggling their captives. Turkish police’s rescue of a 7-year-old
Yazidi girl whom the Islamic State had sought to sell in an online
auction as a captive in Turkey last year is a case in point.

Turkey’s fight against Islamic State has always been haphazard. The
fact that al-Qurayshi could shelter near the Turkish border has only
amplified the depth of these holes.