Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, has confirmed that Turkish forces killed the leader of the Islamic State organization during an operation in Syria over the weekend.

Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi, the IS leader’s codename, was reportedly killed in a strike on Saturday after being pursued “for a long time,” according to Mr. Erdogan.

Erdogan said on TRT Turk Television, “We will keep up the fight against terrorist organizations without making any distinctions against them.

Abu Hussein al-Qurayshi was named leader of the terrorist group after its previous leader was killed an October.

ISIS described him as “one of the veteran warrior and one of the loyal sons of the Islamic State”.

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The death is Islamic State’s leader comes just months after the jihadist group said its leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi had died.

The United States confirmed he had been killed in south-west Syria in an operation in mid-October.