BEIRUT: Syria’s main insurgent Al-Qaeda-linked group denied it was behind the killing of the Daesh group’s leader in the country’s northwest saying it would have otherwise claimed responsibility.
The security arm of Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, made the announcement Friday night, a day after Daesh blamed the Syrian insurgent group for the death of its little-known leader, Abu Al-Hussein Al-Husseini Al-Qurayshi, who headed the extremist organization since November.
“We categorically deny this claim,” the spokesman of HTS, General Security Diaa Al-Omar, said in a terse statement.
He said HTS would continue to fight “evil acts” by Daesh in rebel-held parts of Syria, adding that had his group been behind Al-Qurayshi’s death “we would have given the good news to Muslims and announced it directly.”
Al-Qurayshi was the fourth Daesh leader to be killed since the group was founded by Iraqi militant Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in June 2014 before its defeat years later.
Abu Hafs Al-Hashemi Al-Qurayshi was named the group’s new leader on Thursday.
The Daesh group broke away from Al-Qaeda a decade ago and attracted supporters from around the world. Despite its defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later, Daesh militants still carry out deadly attacks in both countries and elsewhere.
Since Daesh broke away from Al-Qaeda, both groups fought deadly battles over the past years in northern Syria.
In April, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish intelligence agents had killed Al-Qurayshi in northern Syria — a statement that Daesh denied saying he was killed by HTS and was later handed over to Turkish authorities.
Syria’s main Al-Qaeda-linked group denies it was behind the killing of a Daesh leader
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Syria’s main Al-Qaeda-linked group denies it was behind the killing of a Daesh leader
- Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham denied it was behind the killing of the Daesh group’s leader in the country’s northwest
Over 2,200 Daesh detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria: Iraqi official
- Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists
BAGHDAD: Iraq has so far received 2,225 Daesh group detainees, whom the US military began transferring from Syria last month, an Iraqi official told AFP on Saturday.
They are among up to 7,000 Daesh detainees whose transfer from Syria to Iraq the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced last month, in a move it said was aimed at “ensuring that the terrorists remain in secure detention facilities.”
Previously, they had been held in prisons and camps administered by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.
The announcement of the transfer plan last month came after US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declared that the SDF’s role in confronting Daesh had come to an end.
Saad Maan, head of the security information cell attached to the Iraqi prime minister’s office, told AFP on Saturday that “Iraq has received 2,225 terrorists from the Syrian side by land and air, in coordination with the international coalition,” which Washington has led since 2014 to fight Daesh.
He said they are being held in “strict, regular detention centers.”
A Kurdish military source confirmed to AFP the “continued transfer of Daesh detainees from Syria to Iraq under the protection of the international coalition,” using another name for Daesh.
On Saturday, an AFP photographer near the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria saw a US military convoy and 11 buses with tinted windows.
- Iraq calls for repatriation -
Daesh seized swathes of northern and western Iraq starting in 2014, until Iraqi forces, backed by the international coalition, managed to defeat it in 2017.
Iraq is still recovering from the severe abuses committed by the terrorists.
In recent years, Iraqi courts have issued death and life sentences against those convicted of terrorism offenses.
Thousands of Iraqis and foreign nationals convicted of membership in the group are incarcerated in Iraqi prisons.
On Monday, the Iraqi judiciary announced it had begun investigative procedures involving 1,387 detainees it received as part of the US military’s operation.
In a statement to the Iraqi News Agency on Saturday, Maan said “the established principle is to try all those involved in crimes against Iraqis and those belonging to the terrorist Daesh organization before the competent Iraqi courts.”
Among the detainees being transferred to Iraq are Syrians, Iraqis, Europeans and holders of other nationalities, according to Iraqi security sources.
Iraq is calling on the concerned countries to repatriate their citizens and ensure their prosecution.
Maan noted that “the process of handing over the terrorists to their countries will begin once the legal requirements are completed.”
