Syria: Damascus announces the death of an IS leader in the south of the country

A leader of the Islamic State jihadist group blew himself up after being surrounded by Syrian government forces in the south of the country, state media reported on Wednesday (August 10th), citing a security source.

According to the official Sana agency, "

" which led to "

" in the western Deraa region.

The latter “

”.

Al-Iraqi was the military leader of the extremist organization in southern Syria, according to the security source.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has an extensive network of sources in the war-torn country, confirmed Al-Iraki's death on Tuesday.

According to the Observatory, the jihadist leader had been hiding in the region since 2018 and he had participated in assassinations and the chaos that rocked southern Syria.

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Deraa province has been largely controlled by the regime since 2018. Rebel groups still control a few areas under a truce deal sponsored by Russia, an ally of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

ISIS's presence in this province was limited to a small pocket, through an extremist faction that had pledged allegiance to it, before being defeated and pushed back.

After a meteoric rise in power in 2014 and the conquest of vast territories in Iraq and Syria, IS saw its "

self-proclaimed collapsing under the blow of successive offensives.

He was defeated in 2017 in Iraq and in 2019 in Syria.

But the Sunni extremist group responsible for multiple abuses continues to carry out attacks through sleeper cells in both countries.

The complex war in Syria, involving different protagonists, has killed around 500,000 people since 2011.