Senior Turkish officials said Thursday that Islamic State's new leader was captured during a police raid in Istanbul.
The Turkish security forces said after they leaned that Abu Hasan al-Kureshi was in Istanbul, they surveilled a house he had used for a number of days. According to media reports, no shots were fired in the raid.
As soon as they confirmed he was on the premises, a joint anti-terrorism police force with intelligence agents, moved in and apprehended the man they believe had led the jihadist group since the death of its former chief Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in February.
al-Qurayshi, who died in a U.S. special forces raid on his compound in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, killed himself like his predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had done when cornered, in 2019.
The Turkish website OdaTV, which reported on the arrest, also said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was briefed on the capture of the Islamic State leader and is expected to announce it publicly in the coming days.
The Turkish news site said that al-Kureshi was taken into custody and would be questioned in order to gather information about the the Islamic State organization.
The Islamic State announced the identity of its new leader in March, after it confirmed the death of the previous leader - which was more than a month after U.S. President Joe Biden said he had died in a raid.
ISIS did not release any details about their new leader, including his real name .
News of his detention comes as Turkey said it would launch a new military operation in Syria, against the Kurdish YPG forces. Ankara sees YPG as an extension of the PKK - a Kurdish group they characterized as a terror organization.