DAMASCUS — A
Daesh leader blew himself up in
southern Syria after being surrounded by government forces, state media
reported on Wednesday, citing a security source.
اضافة اعلان
The official SANA news agency said security forces
carried out a “special operation” in the Daraa area that led to the death of
“the terrorist Abu Salem Al-Iraqi”.
Iraqi “triggered his explosive belt after being
surrounded and wounded”, the agency said.
The security source said Iraqi had been the military
chief of the extremist group in the country’s south.
The Britain-based
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, which has a vast network of sources on the ground, said
Iraqi died on Tuesday.
It said he had been hiding out in the area since
2018, and had taken part in killings and attacks there.
Daraa province has mostly been under regime control
since 2018, but rebel groups still control some areas under a truce deal agreed
with Russia, an ally of Damascus.
After a meteoric rise in 2014 in Iraq and Syria that
saw it conquer vast swathes of territory, Daesh saw its self-proclaimed
“caliphate” collapse under a wave of offensives.
It was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in
Syria two
years later, but sleeper cells of the extremist group still carry out attacks
in both countries.
Syria’s war began in 2011 and has killed nearly half a
million people and forced around half of the country’s prewar population from
their homes.
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