Senior IS leader killed in southern Syria

Syrian soldiers at a checkpoint in Daraa al-Balad district, southwestern city of Daraa, September 12, 2021. (File photo: AFP/VNA)

State news agency SANA reported on August 10 that Abu Salem Al-Iraqi, a senior leader of the self-proclaimed "Islamic State" (IS) organization, committed suicide during a security operation carried out by Syria a day earlier in the southern province of Daraa.

SANA quoted a security source as saying that Syrian security forces carried out a special operation that left al-Iraqi surrounded and wounded in a house in the town of Adwan, in the western part of Daraa province. He then committed suicide by strapping himself with an explosive belt.

According to the source, Al-Iraqi is the military leader of this extremist organization in southern Syria. Al-Iraqi, an Iraqi national, fled to Daraa after IS was defeated in the Yarmouk Camp area south of the capital Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed Al-Iraqi's death on August 9. According to SOHR, this subject had been hiding in the area since 2018 and he had participated in assassinations and attacks that shook the southern region of Syria.

According to VNA